I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 496
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend Federal Pell Grant
eligibility to certain short-term workforce programs.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY25, 2023
Ms. S
TEFANIK(for herself, Ms. FOXX, Mr. BANKS, Mrs. HINSON, and Mr.
T
HOMPSONof Pennsylvania) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce
A BILL
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend
Federal Pell Grant eligibility to certain short-term work-
force programs.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Promoting Employ-4
ment and Lifelong Learning Act’’ or the ‘‘PELL Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY FOR WORKFORCE PELL 6
GRANTS. 7
Section 481(b) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 8
(20 U.S.C. 1088(b)) is amended— 9
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(1) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and (4) as 1
paragraphs (4) and (5), respectively; and 2
(2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-3
lowing: 4
‘‘(3) (A) A program is an eligible program for 5
purposes of the Workforce Pell Grants program 6
under section 401(k) only if— 7
‘‘(i) it is at least 150 clock hours of in-8
struction, but not more than 600 clock hours of 9
instruction, or an equivalent number of credit 10
hours, offered during a minimum of 8 weeks, 11
but not more than 15 weeks; 12
‘‘(ii) it is determined by an accrediting 13
agency or association recognized by the Sec-14
retary pursuant to section 496(a) to— 15
‘‘(I) provide an education aligned with 16
the requirements of in-demand industry 17
sectors or occupations, as defined in sec-18
tion 3 of the Workforce Innovation and 19
Opportunity Act; 20
‘‘(II) meet the hiring requirements of 21
potential employers in the sectors or occu-22
pations described in subclause (I); 23
‘‘(III) have been offered by an institu-24
tion for not less than 1 year prior to a de-25
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termination by such agency or association 1
under this paragraph; 2
‘‘(IV) have a verified completion rate 3
of at least 70 percent, calculated so as to 4
ensure that a student shall be counted as 5
a completion if the student completes the 6
program within 150 percent of the normal 7
time for completion; and 8
‘‘(V) have verified a job placement 9
rate of at least 70 percent; and 10
‘‘(iii) for each award year, the total 11
amount of the published tuition and fees of the 12
program for such year is an amount that does 13
not exceed the value-added earnings of students 14
who received Federal financial aid under this 15
title and who completed the program 3 years 16
prior to the award year, as such earnings are 17
determined by calculating the difference be-18
tween— 19
‘‘(I) the median earnings of such stu-20
dents, as adjusted by the State and metro-21
politan area regional price parities of the 22
Bureau of Economic Analysis based on the 23
location of such program; and 24
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‘‘(II) 150 percent of the poverty line 1
applicable to a single individual as deter-2
mined under section 673(2) of the Commu-3
nity Services Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 4
9902(2)) for such year. 5
‘‘(B)(i) In the case of a program that has not 6
previously participated in programs under this title 7
and is being determined eligible for the first time 8
under this paragraph, the Secretary may consider 9
such program to be an eligible program for purposes 10
of the Workforce Pell Grants program under section 11
401(k) for a provisional eligibility period that may 12
not exceed 3 years, if such program— 13
‘‘(I) subject to subclause (II), meets the 14
requirements of subparagraph (A); and 15
‘‘(II) in lieu of the determination of me-16
dian earnings under subclause (I) of subpara-17
graph (A)(iii), provides to the Secretary for 18
purposes of meeting the requirements of sub-19
paragraph (A)(iii), alternate earnings of stu-20
dents who complete the program, which are sta-21
tistically rigorous, accurate, comparable, and 22
representative of students who complete such 23
program. 24
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‘‘(ii) In a case in which the Secretary deter-1
mines that a program provided inaccurate earnings 2
data under clause (i)(II) for purposes of receiving 3
provisional eligibility under clause (i), such program 4
shall return to the Secretary any funds received 5
under this title during the period beginning on first 6
date of the provisional eligibility period and ending 7
on the date of determination under this clause. 8
‘‘(C) The Secretary shall establish an appeals 9
process to permit eligible programs for purposes of 10
the Workforce Pell Grants program under section 11
401(k) to submit alternate earnings data to comply 12
with subparagraph (A)(iii), provided that such data 13
are statistically rigorous, accurate, comparable, and 14
representative of students who receive a Workforce 15
Pell Grant and complete the eligible program.’’. 16
SEC. 3. DATA COLLECTION AND DISSEMINATION RELATED 17
TO WORKFORCE PELL. 18
Section 131 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 19
U.S.C. 1015) is amended by adding at the end the fol-20
lowing: 21
‘‘(i) D
ATACOLLECTION AND DISSEMINATIONRE-22
LATED TOWORKFORCEPELL.— 23
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, on an 24
annual basis, collect, verify, and make publicly avail-25
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able on the College Scorecard or any similar suc-1
cessor website, the information required under 2
clause (i), subclauses (IV) and (V) of clause (ii), and 3
clause (iii), and of subsection (b)(3)(A) of section 4
481, with respect to each eligible program that 5
meets the requirements of section 481(b)(3), includ-6
ing— 7
‘‘(A) the length of the program (as meas-8
ured in clock hours, credit hours, or weeks); 9
‘‘(B) the number of students enrolled in 10
the eligible program during the most recent 11
academic year for which data is available; 12
‘‘(C) the percentage of students who enroll 13
in the eligible program and who complete the 14
eligible program within— 15
‘‘(i) 150 percent of the normal time 16
for completion of such program; and 17
‘‘(ii) 200 percent of the normal time 18
for completion of such program; 19
‘‘(D) the percentage of students who are 20
employed not later than 180 days after com-21
pleting the eligible program; and 22
‘‘(E) the percentage of individuals— 23
‘‘(i) who have completed such eligible 24
program; and 25
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‘‘(ii) 3 years after such completion, 1
whose median earnings exceed 150 percent 2
of the poverty line applicable to a single in-3
dividual, as determined under section 4
673(2) of the Community Services Block 5
Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)). 6
‘‘(2) E
XCEPTIONS.—Notwithstanding any other 7
provision of this subsection, if disclosure of any data 8
under paragraph (1) is prohibited under State or 9
Federal privacy laws or regulations, the Secretary 10
shall take such steps as the Secretary determines 11
necessary to make publicly available such data in ac-12
cordance with such laws and regulations.’’. 13
SEC. 4. WORKFORCE PELL GRANTS. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 401 of the Higher Edu-15
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a), as amended by sec-16
tion 703 of the FAFSA Simplification Act (title VII of 17
division FF of Public Law 116–260), is amended by add-18
ing at the end the following: 19
‘‘(k) W
ORKFORCEPELLGRANTSPROGRAM.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—For the award year begin-21
ning on July 1, 2024, and each subsequent award 22
year, the Secretary shall award grants (referred to 23
as ‘Workforce Pell Grants’) to eligible students 24
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under paragraph (2) in accordance with this sub-1
section. 2
‘‘(2) E
LIGIBLE STUDENTS.—For award year 3
2024–2025 and each succeeding award year, to be 4
eligible to receive a Workforce Pell Grant under this 5
subsection for any period of enrollment, a student 6
shall meet the eligibility requirements for a Federal 7
Pell Grant under this section, except that the stu-8
dent— 9
‘‘(A) shall be enrolled, or accepted for en-10
rollment, in an eligible program described in 11
section 481(b)(3); and 12
‘‘(B) may not have received a 13
postbaccalaureate degree. 14
‘‘(3) T
ERMS AND CONDITIONS OF AWARDS .— 15
The Secretary shall award Workforce Pell Grants 16
under this subsection in the same manner and with 17
the same terms and conditions as the Secretary 18
awards Federal Pell Grants under subsection (b), ex-19
cept that a student who is eligible for a grant equal 20
to less than the amount of the minimum Federal 21
Pell Grant because the eligible workforce develop-22
ment program in which the student is enrolled or ac-23
cepted for enrollment is less than an academic year 24
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(in hours of instruction or weeks of duration) may 1
still be eligible for a Workforce Pell Grant. 2
‘‘(4) P
REVENTION OF DOUBLE BENEFITS .—No 3
eligible student described in paragraph (2) may, for 4
the same period of enrollment, receive both a grant 5
under this subsection and a Federal Pell Grant 6
under subsection (b).’’. 7
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 8
subsection (a) shall take effect as if included in section 9
703 of the FAFSA Simplification Act (title VII of division 10
FF of Public Law 116–260; 134 Stat. 3191) and in ac-11
cordance with section 701(b) of such Act. 12
SEC. 5. ACCREDITING AGENCY DETERMINATION OF ELIGI-13
BILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE WORK-14
FORCE PELL GRANTS PROGRAM. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 496(a)(4) of the Higher 16
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)(4)) is amend-17
ed— 18
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 19
the end; 20
(2) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by inserting ‘‘and’’ 21
at the end; and 22
(3) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(C) if such agency or association has or seeks 24
to include within its scope of recognition the evalua-25
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tion of the quality of institutions offering an eligible 1
program for purposes of the Workforce Pell Grants 2
program (in accordance with section 481(b)(3)), 3
such agency or association shall, in addition to meet-4
ing the other requirements of this subpart, dem-5
onstrate to the Secretary that, with respect to such 6
eligible programs— 7
‘‘(i) the agency’s or association’s standards 8
include a process for determining if the institu-9
tion has the capability to effectively offer such 10
an eligible program; and 11
‘‘(ii) the agency or association requires a 12
demonstration that the program— 13
‘‘(I) satisfies the requirements of sub-14
paragraph (A)(ii) of section 481(b)(3); and 15
‘‘(II) provides academic content, an 16
amount of instructional time, and com-17
petencies to satisfy any applicable edu-18
cational requirement so that a student who 19
completes the program and seeks employ-20
ment is qualified to practice or work in the 21
sectors or occupations that the program 22
prepares students to enter;’’. 23
(b) A
DDITIONALNACIQI REVIEWMEETINGS.—For 24
the purpose of preparing for the implementation of the 25
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Workforce Pell Grant program under section 401(k) of the 1
Higher Education Act of 1965 (as added by section 4), 2
in addition to the meetings required under section 3
114(d)(1) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 4
U.S.C. 1011c(d)(1)), the National Advisory Committee on 5
Institutional Quality and Integrity (as established by such 6
section 114) shall, through 2025, hold meetings to evalu-7
ate the additions to the scope of recognition of accrediting 8
agencies and associations with respect to an eligible pro-9
gram for purposes of the Workforce Pell Grants program 10
(in accordance with section 481(b)(3) of the Higher Edu-11
cation Act of 1965, as added by section 2). 12
(c) I
NTERIMACCREDITATIONAUTHORITY.— 13
(1) N
OTIFICATION.—Beginning on the date of 14
enactment of this Act, a qualified accrediting agency 15
or association which seeks to include within its scope 16
of recognition the evaluation of the quality of insti-17
tutions offering eligible programs for the purposes of 18
the Workforce Pell Grants program, may include 19
within its scope of recognition the evaluation of such 20
institutions if the accrediting agency or associa-21
tion— 22
(A) submits to the Secretary a notification 23
of the agency’s or association’s intent to add 24
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the evaluation of such institutions to its scope 1
of recognition; and 2
(B) includes with such notification an ex-3
planation of how the agency or association in-4
tends to meet the criteria under section 5
496(a)(4)(C) of the Higher Education Act of 6
1965 (as added by subsection (a)) with respect 7
to the evaluation of institutions for purposes of 8
the Workforce Pell Grants program. 9
(2) R
EVIEW OF SCOPE OF CHANGES .—Upon re-10
ceipt of a notification from an accrediting agency or 11
association under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 12
direct the National Advisory Committee on Institu-13
tional Quality and Integrity (as established by sec-14
tion 114 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 15
U.S.C. 1011c)) to evaluate, at the next available 16
meeting of such Committee, the addition to the 17
scope of recognition of the agency or association and 18
to advise the Secretary with respect to whether the 19
agency or association meets the criteria under sec-20
tion 496(a)(4)(C) of the Higher Education Act of 21
1965 (as added by subsection (a)). 22
(3) T
ERMINATION OF INTERIM AUTHORITY .— 23
The interim authority under this subsection for an 24
agency or association to include within its scope of 25
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recognition the evaluation of the quality of institu-1
tions offering eligible programs for the purposes of 2
the Workforce Pell Grants program shall terminate 3
on the earlier of— 4
(A) the date that is 5 years after the date 5
of enactment of this Act; or 6
(B) the date on which the Secretary deter-7
mines whether such agency or association meets 8
the criteria under section 496(a)(4)(C) of the 9
Higher Education Act of 1965 (as added by 10
subsection (a)). 11
(4) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 12
(A) The term ‘‘qualified accrediting agency 13
or association’’ means an accrediting agency or 14
association recognized by the Secretary under 15
section 496 of the Higher Education Act of 16
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b) that seeks, for the 17
first time, to add to its scope of recognition the 18
evaluation of the quality of institutions offering 19
an eligible program for purposes of the Work-20
force Pell Grants program. 21
(B) The term ‘‘Workforce Pell Grants pro-22
gram’’ means the Workforce Pell Grant pro-23
gram under section 401(k) of the Higher Edu-24
cation Act of 1965 (as added by section 4). 25
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SEC. 6. ORDERLY IMPLEMENTATION OF WORKFORCE PELL 1
GRANT PROGRAM. 2
The Secretary of Education shall have the authority 3
to take such steps as are necessary before July 1, 2024, 4
to provide for the orderly implementation on such date of 5
the amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965 6
made by this Act. 7
Æ
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