Nation & World News
Bush proposes time limits
on reception of Pell Grants
The proposal would place
an eight-year limit on all
grants given to students
trying for four-year degrees
By Emily Ayshford
Minnesota Daily (U. Minnesota)
(U-WIRE) MINNEAPOLIS — Presi
dent George W. Bush proposed Tues
day a time limit that would restrict the
number of years students can receive
Pell Grants.
The money saved from the time
limit would go toward low-income
grants for students studying science or
mathematics in college, according to
the proposal.
The plan proposes an eight-year
time limit for Pell Grants for four-year
degrees, and a four-year time limit for
two-year degrees.
Bush outlined parts of the proposal
at South Arkansas Community Col
lege in El Dorado, Ark.
Conditions on the time limit are
still undear.
Larry Bloom, manager of the Llni
versity of Minnesota's undergraduate
services, said that a time limit already
exists on Pdl Grants. Students can only
receive grants up to 150 percent of the
time needed for the degree, he said.
For example, students attending
school full-time for a four-year degree
can receive the grant for six years, and
students attending part-time can re
ceive the grant for 12 years.
It is undear whether the eight-year
time limit would apply to full- or part
time students.
"If it just sets a hard and fast eight
year limit, that would be a negative
thing," Bloom said.
The maximum Pell Grant amount
is currently $4,050 per year.
The proposed Presidential Math
and Science Scholars Fund would
provide $100 million in grants to
low-income students eligible for Pell
Grants. Although the program would
be separate from the Pell Grant pro
gram, students would receive an ad
ditional $5,000 to study math or sci
ence.
Bloom said that merit and specific
areas of study have not previously
played a role in determining who is
eligible for grants.
"It has never been there before," he
said. "It has always been if you've
been admitted to a school, it just
looks at you economically."
But any grants are helpful to stu
dents, Bloom said.
"Any time any needy student can
get more money, that's a good thing,"
he said.
Emily Ayshford is a reporter
for the Minnesota Daily.
Rice: Administration couldn’t
have prevented 9-11 attacks
t
National security adviser
Condoleezza Rice provided
sworn testimony Thursday
By Ron Hutcheson
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — National securi
ty adviser Condoleezza Rice acknowl
edged under intense questioning
Thursday that President Bush was told
a month before the Sept. 11, 2001 at
tacks that al-Qaida terrorists seemed
to be plotting to hijack airplanes.
But Rice insisted in three hours of tes
timony before the Sept. 11 commission
that the government couldn't have pre
dicted or prevented the attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"The problem is that the United
States was effectively blind to what
was about to happen," she told the
10-member panel. She refused to con
cede any mistakes by the Bush admin
istration, standing her ground in the
face of combative questioning from
the commission and recent criticism
from former White House counterter
rorism adviser Richard Clarke.
Rice's appearance in the cavernous
wood-and-marble hearing room was a
moment of high drama, but her sworn
testimony failed to resolve questions
about Bush's approach to tenorism be
fore Sept. 11. Clarke told the panel last
month that the president and his advis
ers had failed to confront the threat and
all but ignored repeated warnings of a
possible attack.
"There was no silver bullet that
could have prevented the 9-11 at
tacks," Rice said.
But previously classified docu
ments and other evidence compiled
by the bipartisan commission show
that the attacks didn't come as a com
plete surprise. In a series of tense ex
changes, commissioners put Rice on
the defensive on some key issues.
She backed away from her previous
assertion that no one could have pre
dicted that terrorists would use an air
plane as a missile. In fact, various in
telligence agencies had produced 12
reports over a seven-year time span
suggesting that possibility.
Democrats on the panel grilled Rice
about a special CIA briefing for Bush
at his Texas ranch on Aug. 6, 2001, fo
cusing on the possibility of an al-Qai
da attack.
Although the actual document,
known as the President's Daily Brief
ing, or PDB, remains classified, com
missioner Richard Ben-Veniste
pressed Rice to disclose its title: "Bin
Laden Determined to Attack Inside
the United States."
Another commissioner, former De
mocratic Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebras
ka, revealed that the briefing included
FBI reports of "suspicious activity in
the United States consistent with
preparations for a hijacking."
Rice said that she and Bush didn't
take additional action as a result of
the briefing because the FBI was al
ready investigating possible hijacking
operations.
Other commissioners challenged
Rice's assertion that FBI agents around
the country were put on high alert in
the spring and summer before the
Sept. 11 attacks because of a dramatic
increase in intelligence pointing to a
devastating terrorist assault.
"To date, we have found nobody —
nobody — at the FBI who knows any
thing about a tasking of field offices"
to escalate anti-terror efforts, former
Democratic Rep. Tim Roemer of Indi
ana told Rice. "Nothing went down
the chain to the FBI field offices on
spiking of information, on knowl
edge of al-Qaida in the country."
(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
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