GOP Control Will Spur Change, Experts Say
By Charles Dervarics

The decisive Republican victory in the November mid-term elections will have major implications on issues ranging from higher education to civil rights, advocates say.

Republicans will re-claim control of the U.S. Senate, making it the first time in half a century that the party controls both the White House and both houses of Congress. The GOP also added to their majority in the House of Representatives for the new Congress that convenes in January.

"They're fully in command," says J. Noah Brown, public policy director for the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). "Clearly, the president has a mandate now."

Long-term effects may be seen from presidential appointments to the future of higher education funding.

On civil rights, Republican victories may lead to a long-term appointment for Gerald Reynolds, assistant secretary of education for civil rights. Many civil rights groups and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., held up confirmation of the conservative Reynolds, which prompted the White House to install him on a temporary basis through a process known as a "recess appointment."

Reynolds' short-term appointment ends with the current Congress, but a Republican-controlled Senate now is likely to approve a long-term confirmation.

With conservatives in charge of both the House and Senate, "we likely are at a time of extreme peril for civil rights and liberties," says Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights based in Washington, D.C.

A GOP-controlled Senate also is more likely to approve conservative appointments to federal judgeships, including any Supreme Court vacancy.

"With Congress now in the hands of far-right ideologues, there is little that stands in the way of the White House's goal of packing the federal courts," Henderson says.