This article reports that if there's a silver lining in the dark cloud hanging over campus budgets, it may be that colleges' investment losses could ease Congress's demands for mandatory endowment payouts, at least in the short term. In part that's because colleges tend to spend greater portions of their assets when endowments dip, even if overall spending declines. It's also because the Congressional proposals would generate less money for student aid in the current downturn than they would have when endowments were posting double-digit returns. That doesn't mean that lawmakers won't continue to press colleges to spend more of their assets on student aid. Rep. Peter Welch, a Democrat of Vermont, has already said that he plans to pursue a 5-percent-payout requirement next year. Colleges spent an average of 4.6 percent of their endowments in 2007, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Even if lawmakers do not act on payout legislation, college leaders expect the Congressional debate over college affordability will continue. As Amherst College President Anthony W. Marx remarked, "Congress and the public will continue to be interested in our costs and price as long as college education remains one of the largest items among any family's expenses."