Us Congress House Bill HB6951 Latest Draft

                            IB 
Union Calendar No. 624 
118THCONGRESS 
2
DSESSION H. R. 6951 
[Report No. 118–739] 
To lower the cost of postsecondary education for students and families. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY11, 2024 
Ms. F
OXX(for herself, Mr. OWENS, Mr. GROTHMAN, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. 
S
MUCKER, Mrs. MCCLAIN, Mrs. STEEL, and Mr. WILLIAMSof New York) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Education and the Workforce 
N
OVEMBER18, 2024 
Additional sponsors: Mrs. H
OUCHIN, Ms. STEFANIK, Mr. MORAN, Mr. JAMES, 
Mrs. C
HAVEZ-DEREMER, Mr. BENTZ, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. WILSONof 
South Carolina, Mr. E
STES, Mr. MANN, Mr. RESCHENTHALER, Mr. SES-
SIONS, Mr. BANKS, Mr. CARTERof Texas, Mr. BEANof Florida, Mrs. 
M
ILLERof Illinois, Mr. COMER, Mr. KILEY, Mr. WEBERof Texas, Mr. 
F
INSTAD, Mr. AMODEI, Mr. ROGERSof Alabama, Mr. ROUZER, Mr. 
E
DWARDS, Ms. TENNEY, Mr. WEBSTERof Florida, Mr. VANORDEN, Mr. 
B
URGESS, Mr. LAMALFA, Mr. CURTIS, Mr. YAKYM, Mr. LATURNER, Mr. 
S
MITHof Nebraska, Mr. VANDREW, Mr. PENCE, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. 
M
OOLENAAR, Mr. FLEISCHMANN, Mr. AUSTINSCOTTof Georgia, Mr. 
D
UARTE, Mr. TIMMONS, Mr. LOUDERMILK, Mrs. HARSHBARGER, Mr. 
P
OSEY, Mr. HUDSON, Ms. MALLIOTAKIS, Mr. SCOTTFRANKLINof Flor-
ida, Mr. M
EUSER, Mrs. HINSON, Mr. LANGWORTHY, Mr. CLINE, Mr. 
L
AMBORN, Mrs. MILLERof West Virginia, Mrs. LUNA, Mr. RUTHER-
FORD, Mr. FRY, Mr. FERGUSON, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. JOHNSONof South 
Dakota, Mr. M
ILLS, Mr. TONYGONZALESof Texas, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. 
S
CALISE, Mr. MOONEY, Mr. ROGERSof Kentucky, Mr. ARRINGTON, Mr. 
H
ERN, Mr. DUNNof Florida, Mr. ALFORD, Mr. JACKSONof Texas, Mrs. 
B
ICE, Mr. TIFFANY, Mr. EMMER, Mr. CISCOMANI, Mr. SMITHof Mis-
souri, Mr. A
DERHOLT, Mr. MCHENRY, Mr. GUTHRIE, Mr. D’ESPOSITO, 
Ms. M
ALOY, Mrs. CAMMACK, Mr. PFLUGER, Ms. VANDUYNE, Mr. 
Z
INKE, Mr. KUSTOFF, Mr. KELLYof Pennsylvania, Mr. FULCHER, Mr. 
L
UETKEMEYER, Mr. ISSA, Mr. BAIRD, Mr. WALTZ, Mrs. RODGERSof 
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Washington, Mr. DESJARLAIS, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. ROSE, Mr. JOR-
DAN, Mr. CLYDE, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. WESTERMAN, Ms. GRANGER, Mr. 
N
EHLS, Mr. DONALDS, Mr. BRECHEEN, Mr. GREENof Tennessee, Mr. 
G
OODof Virginia, Mr. BISHOPof North Carolina, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. 
E
LLZEY, Mr. BERGMAN, Mr. GRAVESof Missouri, Mr. MCCORMICK, Mr. 
V
ALADAO, Mr. STAUBER, Mr. FALLON, Mr. FONG, Mr. WILLIAMSof 
Texas, Mr. L
ALOTA, Mr. SMITHof New Jersey, Mr. MOOREof Alabama, 
Mr. G
OODENof Texas, Mrs. KIGGANSof Virginia, Ms. HAGEMAN, Mr. 
K
ELLYof Mississippi, Mr. LAHOOD, Mr. SELF, Mr. HILL, Mr. STEUBE, 
Mr. B
URCHETT, Mr. SCHWEIKERT, Mr. OBERNOLTE, Mrs. LESKO, Mr. 
B
UCHANAN, Mr. FITZGERALD, Mr. BURLISON, Mr. CLOUD, Mr. OGLES, 
Mr. G
AETZ, Mr. WENSTRUP, Mr. LOPEZ, Mr. MAST, Mr. GRIFFITH, Mr. 
H
UNT, Mr. JOYCEof Ohio, Mr. RULLI, Mr. CRENSHAW, and Ms. 
B
OEBERT 
N
OVEMBER18, 2024 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on January 11, 2024] 
A BILL 
To lower the cost of postsecondary education for students 
and families. 
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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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Col-4
lege Cost Reduction Act’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 6
this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. References. 
TITLE I—TRANSPARENCY 
P
ARTA—DEFINITIONS 
Sec. 101. Definitions. 
P
ARTB—COLLEGE COSTS AND FINANCIAL VALUE 
Sec. 111. Financial aid offers. 
Sec. 112. College scorecard website. 
Sec. 113. Postsecondary student data system. 
Sec. 114. Database of student information prohibited. 
TITLE II—ACCESS AND AFFORDABILITY 
P
ARTA—FINANCIAL NEED 
Sec. 201. Amount of need; cost of attendance; median cost of college. 
P
ARTB—FINANCIAL AID 
SUBPART 1—GRANTS 
Sec. 211. Federal Pell Grant program. 
Sec. 212. Campus-based aid programs. 
SUBPART 2—LOANS 
Sec. 221. Loan limits. 
Sec. 222. Loan repayment. 
Sec. 223. Loan rehabilitation. 
Sec. 224. Interest capitalization. 
Sec. 225. Origination fees. 
TITLE III—ACCOUNTABILITY AND STUDENT SUCCESS 
P
ARTA—ACCOUNTABILITY 
SUBPART 1—DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 
Sec. 301. Agreements with institutions. 
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Sec. 302. Regulatory relief. 
Sec. 303. Limitation on authority of Secretary to propose or issue regulations 
and Executive actions. 
Sec. 304. Office of Federal Student Aid. 
SUBPART 2—ACCREDITORS 
Sec. 311. Accrediting agency recognition. 
Sec. 312. National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity 
(NACIQI). 
Sec. 313. Alternative quality assurance experimental site initiative. 
P
ARTB—STUDENT SUCCESS 
Sec. 321. Postsecondary student success grants. 
Sec. 322. Reverse Transfer Efficiency Act. 
Sec. 323. Transparent and fair transfer of credit policies. 
SEC. 2. REFERENCES. 
1
(a) H
IGHEREDUCATIONACT OF1965.—Except as 2
otherwise expressly provided, whenever in this Act an 3
amendment or repeal is expressed in terms of an amend-4
ment to, or repeal of, a section or other provision, the ref-5
erence shall be considered to be made to a section or other 6
provision of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7
1001 et seq.). 8
(b) FAFSA S
IMPLIFICATIONACT.—Except as other-9
wise expressly provided, whenever in this Act a reference 10
to a section or other provision of the Higher Education Act 11
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.) refers to such section or 12
other provision as amended or added by the FAFSA Sim-13
plification Act, the reference shall be considered to be made 14
to the section or other provision as amended or added by— 15
(1) title VII of division FF of the Consolidated 16
Appropriations Act, 2021 (title VII of division FF of 17
Public Law 116–260), subject to the effective date of 18
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section 701(b) of such Act, as amended by section 1
102(a) of the FAFSA Simplification Act Technical 2
Corrections Act (division R of Public Law 117–103) 3
(including the authorization provided under section 4
102(c)(1)(A) of such Act); and 5
(2) the FAFSA Simplification Act Technical 6
Corrections Act (division R of Public Law 117–103). 7
TITLE I—TRANSPARENCY 8
PART A—DEFINITIONS 9
SEC. 101. DEFINITIONS. 10
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—Section 103 of the Higher Edu-11
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1003) is amended by adding 12
at the end the following: 13
‘‘(25) C
IP CODE.—The term ‘CIP code’ means 14
the six-digit taxonomic identification code assigned 15
by an institution of higher education to a specific 16
program of study at the institution, determined by 17
the institution in accordance with the Classification 18
of Instructional Programs published by the National 19
Center for Education Statistics. 20
‘‘(26) C
REDENTIAL LEVEL.— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘credential 22
level’ means the level of the degree or other cre-23
dential awarded by an institution of higher edu-24
cation to students who complete a program of 25
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study of the institution. Each degree or other cre-1
dential awarded by an institution shall be cat-2
egorized by the institution as either under-3
graduate credential level or graduate credential 4
level. 5
‘‘(B) U
NDERGRADUATE CREDENTIAL .— 6
When used with respect to a credential or creden-7
tial level, the term ‘undergraduate credential’ in-8
cludes credentials such as an undergraduate cer-9
tificate, an associate degree, a bachelor’s degree, 10
and a post-baccalaureate certificate. 11
‘‘(C) G
RADUATE CREDENTIAL .—When used 12
with respect to a credential or credential level, 13
the term ‘graduate credential’ includes creden-14
tials such as a master’s degree, a doctoral degree, 15
a professional degree, and a postgraduate certifi-16
cate. 17
‘‘(27) P
ROGRAM OF STUDY.—The term ‘program 18
of study’ means an academic program of study offered 19
to students by an institution of higher education 20
that— 21
‘‘(A) upon completion of the program, re-22
sults in the award of a credential to a student, 23
including a degree, diploma, or certificate, for 24
one credential level; 25
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‘‘(B) is certified as a program of study in 1
the institution’s program participation agree-2
ment under section 487; and 3
‘‘(C) is classified by a combination of— 4
‘‘(i) a CIP code; and 5
‘‘(ii) one credential level, determined 6
by the credential awarded upon completion 7
of the program. 8
‘‘(28) P
ROGRAM LENGTH.—The term ‘program 9
length’ means the minimum amount of time in weeks, 10
months, or years that is specified in the catalog, mar-11
keting materials, or other official publications of an 12
institution of higher education for a full-time student 13
to complete the requirements for a specific program of 14
study and to obtain the degree or credential awarded 15
by such program. 16
‘‘(29) T
IME TO CREDENTIAL.—The term ‘time to 17
credential’ means, with respect to a student, the ac-18
tual amount of time in weeks, months, or years it 19
takes the student to complete the requirements for a 20
specific program of study and to obtain the degree or 21
credential awarded by such program. 22
‘‘(30) V
ALUE-ADDED EARNINGS.— 23
‘‘(A) C
ALCULATION.—With respect to a stu-24
dent who received Federal financial aid under 25
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title IV and who completed a program of study 1
offered by an institution of higher education, the 2
term ‘value-added earnings’ means— 3
‘‘(i) the annual earnings of such stu-4
dent measured during the applicable earn-5
ings measurement period for such program 6
(as determined under subparagraph (C)); 7
minus 8
‘‘(ii) in the case of a student who com-9
pleted a program of study that awards— 10
‘‘(I) an undergraduate credential 11
(other than such a credential awarded 12
by a qualifying undergraduate pro-13
gram as defined in section 14
455(a)(4)(B)(ii)), 150 percent of the 15
poverty line applicable to a single in-16
dividual as determined under section 17
673(2) of the Community Services 18
Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) 19
for such year; or 20
‘‘(II) a graduate credential or an 21
undergraduate credential awarded by a 22
qualifying undergraduate program as 23
defined in section 455(a)(4)(B)(ii), 300 24
percent of the poverty line applicable 25
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to a single individual as determined 1
under section 673(2) of the Community 2
Services Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 3
9902(2)) for such year. 4
‘‘(B) G
EOGRAPHIC ADJUSTMENT .— 5
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided 6
in clause (ii), the Secretary shall use the ge-7
ographic location of the institution at which 8
a student completed a program of study to 9
adjust the value-added earnings of the stu-10
dent calculated under subparagraph (A) by 11
dividing— 12
‘‘(I) the difference between sub-13
clauses (I) and (II) of such subpara-14
graph; by 15
‘‘(II) the most recent regional 16
price parity index of the Bureau of Ec-17
onomics Analysis for the State or, as 18
applicable, metropolitan area in which 19
such institution is located. 20
‘‘(ii) E
XCEPTION.—The value-added 21
earnings of a student calculated under sub-22
paragraph (A) shall not be adjusted based 23
on geographic location in accordance with 24
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clause (i) if such student attended prin-1
cipally through distance education. 2
‘‘(C) E
ARNINGS MEASUREMENT PERIOD .— 3
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—For the purpose of 4
calculating the value-added earnings of a 5
student, except as provided in clause (ii), 6
the annual earnings of a student shall be 7
measured— 8
‘‘(I) in the case of a program of 9
study that awards an undergraduate 10
certificate, post baccalaureate certifi-11
cate, or graduate certificate, one year 12
after the student completes such pro-13
gram; 14
‘‘(II) in the case of a program of 15
study that awards an associate’s degree 16
or master’s degree, 2 years after the 17
student completes such program; and 18
‘‘(III) in the case of a program of 19
study that awards a bachelor’s degree, 20
doctoral degree, or professional degree, 21
4 years after the student completes 22
such program. 23
‘‘(ii) E
XCEPTION.—The Secretary may, 24
as the Secretary determines appropriate 25
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based on the characteristics of a program of 1
study, extend an earnings measurement pe-2
riod described in clause (i) for a program 3
of study that— 4
‘‘(I) requires completion of an ad-5
ditional educational program after 6
completion of the program of study in 7
order to obtain a licensure associated 8
with the credential awarded for such 9
program of study; and 10
‘‘(II) when combined with the 11
program length of such additional edu-12
cational program for licensure, has a 13
total program length that exceeds the 14
relevant earnings measurement period 15
prescribed for such program of study 16
under clause (i), 17
except that in no case shall the annual 18
earnings of a student be measured more 19
than 5 years after the student completes a 20
program of study.’’. 21
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PART B—COLLEGE COSTS AND FINANCIAL VALUE 1
SEC. 111. FINANCIAL AID OFFERS. 2
(a) I
NSTITUTIONFINANCIALAIDOFFER.—Part B of 3
title I of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011 4
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘SEC. 124. INSTITUTION FINANCIAL AID OFFER FORM. 6
‘‘(a) S
TANDARDFORM ANDTERMINOLOGY.—The Sec-7
retary, in consultation with the heads of relevant Federal 8
agencies, shall develop standard terminology and a stand-9
ard form for financial aid offers based on recommendations 10
from representatives of students, veterans, servicemembers, 11
families of students, institutions of higher education (in-12
cluding community colleges, for-profit institutions, four- 13
year public institutions, and four-year private nonprofit 14
institutions), financial aid experts, secondary school and 15
postsecondary counselors, college access professionals, non-16
profit organizations, and consumer groups. 17
‘‘(b) K
EYREQUIREDCONTENTS FORAIDOFFER.— 18
The standard form developed pursuant to subsection (a) 19
shall be titled ‘Financial Aid Offer’ and shall include the 20
following items in a consumer-friendly manner that is sim-21
ple and understandable, with costs listed first, followed by 22
grants and scholarships, clearly separated from each other 23
with separate headings: 24
‘‘(1) C
OST INFORMATION.— 25
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Information on the stu-1
dent’s estimated cost of attendance, including the 2
following: 3
‘‘(i) D
IRECT COSTS.—The total cost of 4
all items described in section 472 that are 5
billed to the student by the institution or 6
otherwise required by the institution for en-7
rollment, including such total cost 8
disaggregated by the cost of each such item, 9
including, as determined under such sec-10
tion— 11
‘‘(I) tuition and fees (and other 12
required expenses); and 13
‘‘(II) housing and food for a stu-14
dent electing institutionally owned or 15
operated food services or institutionally 16
owned or operated housing. 17
‘‘(ii) I
NDIRECT COSTS.—The total cost 18
(including such total cost disaggregated by 19
the cost of each item) as determined under 20
section 472, of— 21
‘‘(I) housing and food for a stu-22
dent not electing institutionally owned 23
or operated food services and not living 24
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in institutionally owned or operated 1
housing; 2
‘‘(II) books, school supplies, equip-3
ment, course materials, and rental or 4
purchase of a personal computer; 5
‘‘(III) transportation; and 6
‘‘(IV) any other item described in 7
such section and not described in 8
clause (i) determined to be necessary 9
by the institution. 10
‘‘(B) The academic period covered by the fi-11
nancial aid offer, and an explanation that the 12
amount of financial aid offered may differ— 13
‘‘(i) for academic periods not covered 14
by the aid offer, such as a summer term or 15
future academic year; or 16
‘‘(ii) by program. 17
‘‘(C) An indication of whether cost and aid 18
estimates are based on full-time or part-time en-19
rollment. 20
‘‘(D) An indication, as applicable, about 21
whether any costs described in subparagraph 22
(A)(i) which are subject to change are— 23
‘‘(i) estimated based on the previous 24
year; or 25
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‘‘(ii) set for the academic period indi-1
cated in accordance with subparagraph (B). 2
‘‘(2) G
RANTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS .—The aggre-3
gate amount of grants and scholarships, differentiated 4
by source, that the student does not have to repay, 5
such as grant aid offered under title IV, grant aid of-6
fered through other Federal programs, grant aid of-7
fered by the institution, grant aid offered by the 8
State, and, if known, grant aid or scholarship from 9
an outside source to the student for such academic pe-10
riod, including a disclosure that the grants and schol-11
arships do not have to be repaid, except that institu-12
tions shall be authorized to list individual grants and 13
scholarships by name at the discretion of the institu-14
tion. 15
‘‘(3) N
ET PRICE.— 16
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The net price that the 17
student, is estimated to have to pay for the stu-18
dent to attend the institution for such academic 19
period, including the following: 20
‘‘(i) M
INIMUM AMOUNT COVERED BY 21
STUDENT FOR ENROLLMENT .—The net price 22
of tuition and fees (and other required ex-23
penses), which is equal to— 24
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‘‘(I) the sum of the costs described 1
in paragraph (1)(A) that are required 2
for students (as determined under 3
paragraph (5)(B)) for the period indi-4
cated in paragraph (1)(B); minus 5
‘‘(II) the total amount of grant 6
and scholarship aid described in para-7
graph (2) that is included in the fi-8
nancial aid offer and available to the 9
student for the costs described in sub-10
clause (I). 11
‘‘(ii) E
STIMATED ANNUAL NET PRICE 12
OF ATTENDANCE.—The estimated net price 13
of attendance, which is equal to— 14
‘‘(I) the cost of attendance for the 15
student for the period indicated in 16
paragraph (1)(B); minus 17
‘‘(II) the total amount of grant 18
and scholarship aid described in para-19
graph (2). 20
‘‘(B) D
ISCLOSURE.—A disclosure that the 21
estimated annual net price of attendance as cal-22
culated under subparagraph (A)(ii) is based on 23
an estimate of the total cost of attendance for the 24
year and not necessarily equivalent to the 25
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amount the student will owe directly to the insti-1
tution. 2
‘‘(4) L
OANS.— 3
‘‘(A) Information on any education loan of-4
fered through any Federal or State program (in-5
cluding any loan under part D or part E of title 6
IV other than a Federal Direct PLUS Loan) 7
that the institution offers for the student for the 8
academic period covered by the offer, which shall 9
be made— 10
‘‘(i) with clear use of the word ‘loan’ to 11
describe the recommended loan amounts; 12
and 13
‘‘(ii) with clear labeling of subsidized 14
and unsubsidized loans. 15
‘‘(B) If applicable, a disclosure that such 16
loans have to be repaid with interest. 17
‘‘(C) Information on any other loan that the 18
student or parent has applied for and been ap-19
proved for, regardless of the source. 20
‘‘(5) S
TUDENT EMPLOYMENT .—Information on 21
work-study employment opportunities (including 22
work-study programs under part C of title IV, insti-23
tutional work-study programs, or State work-study 24
programs), including— 25
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‘‘(A) the maximum annual amount the stu-1
dent may earn through the program; and 2
‘‘(B) a disclosure that any amounts received 3
pursuant to such a program may be— 4
‘‘(i) subject to the availability of quali-5
fied employment opportunities upon stu-6
dents enrollment; and 7
‘‘(ii) disbursed over time as earned by 8
the student. 9
‘‘(6) P
ROCESS FOR ACCEPTING , ADJUSTING, OR 10
DECLINING AID AND NEXT STEPS .— 11
‘‘(A) The deadlines and a summary of the 12
process (including the next steps) for— 13
‘‘(i) accepting the financial aid offered; 14
‘‘(ii) adjusting the amount of aid of-15
fered; and 16
‘‘(iii) declining the aid offered. 17
‘‘(B) Information on when and how costs 18
described in paragraph (1)(A)(i) must be paid, 19
including a clear indication of whether each such 20
cost is required or optional for the student. 21
‘‘(C) A disclosure that verification of infor-22
mation provided on the Free Application for 23
Federal Student Aid may require the student to 24
submit further documentation. 25
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‘‘(D) Information about where a student or 1
the student’s family can seek additional informa-2
tion regarding the financial aid offered, includ-3
ing contact information for the institution’s fi-4
nancial aid office and the Department of Edu-5
cation’s website on financial aid. 6
‘‘(E) Information about where a student or 7
a student’s family can seek additional informa-8
tion on college costs and student outcomes, in-9
cluding a link to the Department of Education’s 10
College Scorecard website (or successor website). 11
‘‘(7) N
ET PRICE CALCULATOR .—A link to the 12
universal net price calculator website described in sec-13
tion 132(c)(4). 14
‘‘(8) Q
UICK REFERENCE BOX .—A standardized 15
quick reference box to enable students to compare in-16
formation on the costs and financial aid described in 17
paragraphs (1) and (2). The quick reference box shall 18
include the following two data elements: 19
‘‘(A) The minimum amount covered by the 20
student for enrollment described in paragraph 21
(3)(A)(i). 22
‘‘(B) The estimated annual net price of at-23
tendance described in paragraph (3)(A)(ii). 24
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‘‘(9) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.—Any other in-1
formation the Secretary, in consultation with the 2
heads of relevant Federal agencies, including the Sec-3
retary of the Treasury and the Director of the Bureau 4
of Consumer Financial Protection, determines nec-5
essary, based on the results and input of the consumer 6
testing under subsection (h)(2), and limited only to 7
effectively communicating college costs and financial 8
aid eligibility to students and parents. 9
‘‘(c) O
THERREQUIREDCONTENTS FORAIDOFFER.— 10
The standard form developed under subsection (a) shall in-11
clude, in addition to the information described in subsection 12
(b), the following information in a concise format deter-13
mined by the Secretary, in consultation with the heads of 14
relevant Federal agencies and the individuals and entities 15
described in subsection (a): 16
‘‘(1) Additional options and potential resources 17
for paying for the amount listed in subsection (b)(3), 18
such as tuition payment plans. 19
‘‘(2) The following information relating to pri-20
vate student loans and Federal Direct PLUS Loans: 21
‘‘(A) A disclosure that Federal Direct PLUS 22
Loans, private education loans, or income share 23
agreements may be available to cover remaining 24
need, except that the institution may not include 25
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Federal Direct PLUS Loans or private edu-1
cation loans other than under the conditions de-2
scribed in subsection (b)(4)(C) and must include 3
a disclosure that such loans— 4
‘‘(i) are subject to an additional appli-5
cation process; and 6
‘‘(ii) must be repaid by the borrower or 7
their co-signer, and may not be eligible for 8
the benefits available for Federal Direct 9
Loans or Federal Direct Unsubsidized 10
Loans. 11
‘‘(B) A statement that students considering 12
borrowing to cover the cost of attendance should 13
consider available Federal student loans prior to 14
applying for private education loans, including 15
an explanation that Federal student loans offer 16
generally more favorable terms and beneficial re-17
payment options than private loans. 18
‘‘(d) A
DDITIONALFORMATTINGREQUIREMENTS FOR 19
F
INANCIALAIDOFFER.—The financial aid offer shall meet 20
the following requirements: 21
‘‘(1) Clearly distinguish between the aid offered 22
under paragraphs (2) and (4) of subsection (b), by in-23
cluding a subtotal for the aid offered in each of such 24
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paragraphs and by refraining from commingling the 1
different types of aid described in such paragraphs. 2
‘‘(2) Use standard terminology and definitions, 3
as described in subsection (f)(1), and use plain lan-4
guage where possible. 5
‘‘(3) Use the standard aid offer described in sub-6
section (f)(2). 7
‘‘(e) A
DDITIONALREQUIREMENTS FOR ELECTRONIC 8
F
INANCIALAIDOFFERS.—In the case of an electronic fi-9
nancial aid offer that includes a requirement that a student 10
confirm receipt of such offer, such confirmation may not 11
be considered an acceptance or rejection of such offer. 12
‘‘(f) S
UPPLEMENTALCONTENT ANDDISCLOSURES TO 13
B
EPROVIDED.—In addition to the standard form described 14
under subsection (a), institutions shall provide, in supple-15
mental documents or through easily accessible weblinks to 16
the institution’s portal or a website, the following: 17
‘‘(1) The renewability requirements and condi-18
tions under which the student can expect to receive 19
similar amounts of such financial aid for each aca-20
demic period the student is enrolled at the institution. 21
‘‘(2) Whether the aid offer may change if aid 22
from outside sources is applied after the student re-23
ceives the initial aid offer, and, if applicable, how 24
that aid will change. 25
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‘‘(3) If loans under part D or part E of title IV 1
or other education loans offered through Federal pro-2
grams are included— 3
‘‘(A) a disclosure that the interest rates and 4
fees on such loans are set annually and affect 5
total cost over time, and a link to any website 6
that includes current information on interest 7
rates and fees; and 8
‘‘(B) if an institution’s recommended Fed-9
eral student loan aid offered in subsection (b)(4) 10
is less than the Federal maximum available to 11
the student, the institution shall provide addi-12
tional information on Federal student loans in-13
cluding the types and amounts for which the stu-14
dent is eligible and the process for requesting 15
higher loan amounts if offered loan amounts 16
were included. 17
‘‘(4) If the institution opts not to disclose other 18
items described in subsection (b)(1)(A)(ii)(V) as part 19
of the aid offer, a list of such other items and the al-20
lowance amount for each such item. 21
‘‘(g) S
TANDARDINFORMATIONESTABLISHED BYSEC-22
RETARY.— 23
‘‘(1) S
TANDARD TERMINOLOGY .—Not later than 24
3 months after the date of enactment of the College 25
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Cost Reduction Act, the Secretary, in consultation 1
with the heads of relevant Federal agencies, and the 2
individuals and entities described in subsection (a) 3
shall establish standard terminology and definitions 4
for the terms described in subsection (b). 5
‘‘(2) S
TANDARD FORM.— 6
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Edu-7
cation shall develop multiple draft financial aid 8
offers for consumer testing, carry out consumer 9
testing for such forms, and establish a finalized 10
standard financial aid offer in accordance 11
with— 12
‘‘(i) the process established under sub-13
section (h); and 14
‘‘(ii) the requirements of this section. 15
‘‘(B) S
EPARATE FINANCIAL AID OFFERS .— 16
The Secretary shall develop separate financial 17
aid offers for— 18
‘‘(i) undergraduate students; and 19
‘‘(ii) graduate students. 20
‘‘(h) A
DDITIONALINFORMATION; REMOVAL OFINFOR-21
MATION.—Nothing in this section shall preclude an institu-22
tion from— 23
‘‘(1) supplementing the financial aid offer with 24
additional information, provided that such informa-25
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tion utilizes the same standard terminology identified 1
in subsection (f)(1) and does not misrepresent costs, 2
financial aid offered, or net price; or 3
‘‘(2) deleting a required item or disclosure if— 4
‘‘(A) the student is ineligible for such aid; 5
‘‘(B) the institution does not participate in 6
the aid program or type; 7
‘‘(C) the aid offer does not include the aid 8
program or type; or 9
‘‘(D) a cost of attendance item is not appli-10
cable to the student. 11
‘‘(i) D
EVELOPMENT OFFINANCIALAIDOFFER.— 12
‘‘(1) D
RAFT FORM.—Not later than 9 months 13
after the date of enactment of the College Cost Reduc-14
tion Act, the Secretary of Education, in consultation 15
with the heads of relevant Federal agencies and the 16
individuals and entities described in subsection (a) 17
shall design and produce multiple draft financial aid 18
offers for consumer testing with postsecondary stu-19
dents or prospective students. In developing that form, 20
the Secretary shall ensure that— 21
‘‘(A) the headings described in paragraphs 22
(1) through (4) of subsection (b) are in the same 23
font, appears in the same order, and are dis-24
played prominently on the financial aid offer, 25
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such that none of that information is inappro-1
priately omitted or deemphasized; 2
‘‘(B) the other information required under 3
subsection (b) appears in a standard format and 4
design on the financial aid offer; and 5
‘‘(C) the institution may include a logo or 6
brand alongside the title of the financial aid 7
offer. 8
‘‘(2) C
ONSUMER TESTING.— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 9 10
months after the date of enactment of the College 11
Cost Reduction Act, the Secretary, in consulta-12
tion with the heads of relevant Federal agencies, 13
shall establish a process to submit the financial 14
aid offer drafts developed under paragraph (1) 15
for consumer testing among representatives of 16
students (including low-income students, first 17
generation college students, adult students, vet-18
erans, servicemembers, and prospective students), 19
students’ families (including low-income fami-20
lies, families with first generation college stu-21
dents, and families with prospective students), 22
institutions of higher education, secondary school 23
and postsecondary counselors, and nonprofit con-24
sumer groups. 25
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‘‘(B) LENGTH OF CONSUMER TESTING .—The 1
Secretary shall ensure that the consumer testing 2
under this paragraph lasts not longer than 8 3
months after the process for consumer testing is 4
developed under subparagraph (A). 5
‘‘(C) N
ONAPPLICATION OF PAPERWORK RE -6
DUCTION ACT.—Subchapter I of chapter 35 of 7
title 44, United States Code, shall not apply to 8
the consumer testing process under this para-9
graph. 10
‘‘(3) F
INAL FORM.— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The results of consumer 12
testing under paragraph (2) shall be used in the 13
development of the finalized standard financial 14
aid offer required under subsection (f)(2). 15
‘‘(B) R
EPORTING REQUIREMENT .—Not later 16
than 3 months after the date on which the con-17
sumer testing under paragraph (2) concludes, the 18
Secretary shall submit to Congress, and publish 19
on its website— 20
‘‘(i) the final standard financial aid 21
offer; and 22
‘‘(ii) a report detailing the results of 23
such testing, including whether the Sec-24
retary added, modified, or moved any addi-25
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tional items to the standard financial aid 1
offer pursuant to subsection (b)(6). 2
‘‘(4) A
UTHORITY TO MODIFY .—The Secretary 3
may modify or remove the definitions, terms, for-4
matting, and design of the financial aid offer based 5
on the results of consumer testing required under this 6
subsection and before finalizing the form, or in subse-7
quent consumer testing. The Secretary may also rec-8
ommend additional changes to Congress. 9
‘‘(j) C
OST OFATTENDANCEDEFINED.—In this section, 10
the term ‘cost of attendance’ has the meaning given such 11
term in section 472. 12
‘‘(k) U
SE OFMANDATORYFINANCIALAIDOFFER AND 13
T
ERMS.— 14
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 15
provision of law, each institution of higher education 16
that receives Federal financial assistance under this 17
Act shall— 18
‘‘(A) use the financial aid offer developed 19
under this section in providing paper, mobile-op-20
timized offers, or other electronic offers to all stu-21
dents who apply for aid and are accepted at the 22
institution; and 23
‘‘(B) use the standard terminology and defi-24
nitions developed by the Secretary under sub-25
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section (f)(1) for all communications from the 1
institution related to financial aid offers. 2
‘‘(2) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—The requirements under 3
this section shall take effect on the first date on which 4
the Secretary releases the Free Application for Fed-5
eral Student Aid for the applicable award year asso-6
ciated with that application, if such date occurs not 7
less than 1 year after the Secretary of Education fi-8
nalizes the standard terminology and form developed 9
in accordance with this section. 10
‘‘(3) A
DMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES .—Notwith-11
standing any other provision of law, the Secretary 12
shall not have the authority to prescribe regulations 13
to carry out this section, including with respect to the 14
definition of ‘income share agreement’ or ‘private 15
education loan’ (as such term is defined in section 16
140(a) of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 17
1650(a))).’’. 18
(b) R
ELATIONSHIP TOEXISTINGLAW.—Section 484 of 19
the Higher Education Opportunity Act (20 U.S.C. 1092 20
note) is amended by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(c) S
UNSET.—The authority of the Secretary to carry 22
out this section shall terminate on the date on which the 23
standard form for financial aid offers under section 124 24
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of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et 1
seq.) is released.’’. 2
SEC. 112. COLLEGE SCORECARD WEBSITE. 3
(a) C
OLLEGESCORECARDWEBSITE.— 4
(1) D
EFINITIONS; CONFORMING AMENDMENTS .— 5
Section 132 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 6
U.S.C. 1015a(a)) is amended— 7
(A) by amending subsection (a) to read as 8
follows: 9
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 10
‘‘(1) C
OLLEGE SCORECARD WEBSITE .—The term 11
‘College Scorecard website’ means the College Score-12
card website required under subsection (c) and in-13
cludes any successor website. 14
‘‘(2) C
OST OF ATTENDANCE.—The term ‘cost of 15
attendance’ has the meaning given such term in sec-16
tion 472. 17
‘‘(3) T
OTAL NET PRICE REQUIRED FOR COMPLE -18
TION.—The term ‘total net price required for comple-19
tion’ means, with respect to the period of completion 20
of a program of study— 21
‘‘(A) the sum of the required costs described 22
in section 124(b)(3)(A)(i)(I) charged to a student 23
for such period of completion; minus 24
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‘‘(B) the total amount of grant and scholar-1
ship aid described in paragraph (2) of section 2
124(b) that is available to the student for the 3
costs described in subparagraph (A) for comple-4
tion of a program of study.’’; 5
(B) by striking subsections (b) through (g); 6
and 7
(C) by redesignating subsection (h) as sub-8
section (b). 9
(2) S
CORECARD AUTHORIZED .—Section 132 of 10
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1015a) 11
is further amended— 12
(A) by striking subsection (i); and 13
(B) by inserting after subsection (b) (as so 14
redesignated) the following: 15
‘‘(c) C
ONSUMERINFORMATION.— 16
‘‘(1) A
VAILABILITY OF INFORMATION FOR TITLE 17
IV INSTITUTIONS AND PROGRAMS .—Not later than 18 18
months after the date of the enactment of the College 19
Cost Reduction Act, the Secretary shall make publicly 20
available on the College Scorecard website the fol-21
lowing aggregated information with respect to each 22
institution of higher education and each program of 23
study at such institution, as applicable, that partici-24
pates in a program under title IV: 25
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‘‘(A) A link to the website of the institution. 1
‘‘(B) A link to the net price calculator for 2
such institution. 3
‘‘(C) A link to the website of the institution 4
containing campus safety data with respect to 5
such institution. 6
‘‘(D) The geographic location of the institu-7
tion. 8
‘‘(E) Information on the type of institution, 9
including sector, size, predominant and highest 10
credential awarded, research intensity, programs 11
of study offered, and other characteristics of the 12
institution. 13
‘‘(F) Information on student enrollment, in-14
cluding the number and percentage of students 15
enrolled full-time, less than full-time, and en-16
rolled in distance education. 17
‘‘(G) Information on student progression 18
and completion, including time to credential and 19
rates of withdrawal, retention, transfer, or com-20
pletion. 21
‘‘(H) Information on college costs and fi-22
nancial aid, including average, median, min-23
imum, and maximum values of— 24
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‘‘(i) the cost of attendance, including 1
such cost disaggregated by the costs de-2
scribed in paragraphs (1) through (14) of 3
section 472(a); 4
‘‘(ii) the grants and scholarships re-5
ceived by students at the institution and the 6
number and percentage of such students re-7
ceiving such grants and scholarships, 8
disaggregated by source and whether such 9
aid is need-based, merit-based, an athletic 10
scholarship, or other type of grant or schol-11
arship; and 12
‘‘(iii) the total net price required for 13
completion for students who received Fed-14
eral financial assistance described in para-15
graph (2)(I). 16
‘‘(I) Information on student debt and re-17
payment, including— 18
‘‘(i) the average, median, minimum, 19
and maximum amounts borrowed by stu-20
dents under title IV; and 21
‘‘(ii) information with respect to re-22
payment of loans made under title IV, in-23
cluding borrower-based repayment rates, 24
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dollar-based repayment rates, and time 1
spent in repayment. 2
‘‘(J) Information on the earnings of stu-3
dents who received Federal financial assistance 4
described in paragraph (2)(I), including the av-5
erage, median, minimum, and maximum values 6
of— 7
‘‘(i) with respect to students who com-8
plete a program of study in an award 9
year— 10
‘‘(I) the annual earnings of such 11
students; and 12
‘‘(II) the value-added earnings of 13
such students; and 14
‘‘(ii) with respect to students who do 15
not complete a program of study in an 16
award year, the annual earnings of such 17
students. 18
‘‘(2) D
ISAGGREGATED INFORMATION .—The Sec-19
retary shall ensure the information described in para-20
graph (1) is disaggregated, as applicable, by the fol-21
lowing student characteristics: 22
‘‘(A) Financial circumstances including— 23
‘‘(i) household income categories, as de-24
termined by students’ adjusted gross income, 25
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family size, and poverty line (as defined in 1
section 401(a)); and 2
‘‘(ii) student aid index categories, as 3
determined by the Secretary. 4
‘‘(B) Sex. 5
‘‘(C) Race and ethnicity. 6
‘‘(E) Classification as a student with a dis-7
ability. 8
‘‘(F) Enrollment status, including part-time 9
or full-time enrollment, and status as a distance 10
education student. 11
‘‘(G) Status as an in-district, in-State, or 12
out-of-State student. 13
‘‘(H) Status as an international student. 14
‘‘(I) Status as a recipient of Federal finan-15
cial assistance, including— 16
‘‘(i) a Pell Grant; 17
‘‘(ii) a loan made under title IV; and 18
‘‘(iii) assistance described in section 19
131(f)(4) administered, sponsored, or sup-20
ported by the Department of Defense or the 21
Department of Veterans Affairs. 22
‘‘(J) Status as a participant in a program 23
described in section 116(b)(3)(A)(ii) of the Work-24
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force Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 1
U.S.C. 3131(b)(3)(A)(ii)). 2
‘‘(3) I
NSTITUTIONAL AND PROGRAM COMPARI -3
SON.—The Secretary shall include on the College 4
Scorecard website a method for users to easily com-5
pare institutions and programs, including in a man-6
ner that allows for such comparison based on— 7
‘‘(A) the institutional and program infor-8
mation described in paragraph (1); and 9
‘‘(B) the student characteristics described in 10
paragraph (2). 11
‘‘(4) U
NIVERSAL NET PRICE CALCULATOR .— 12
‘‘(A) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 18 13
months after the date of the enactment of this 14
paragraph, the Secretary shall establish, on a 15
dedicated website of the Department, a Universal 16
Net Price Calculator that provides to an indi-17
vidual, with respect to each institution of higher 18
education and program of study offered by such 19
institution— 20
‘‘(i) the information described in sec-21
tion 124, including the amounts described 22
in clauses (i) and (ii) of subsection (b)(3) of 23
such section; and 24
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‘‘(ii) the total net price required for 1
completion as defined under section 132(a). 2
‘‘(B) U
NIVERSAL NET PRICE CALCULATOR 3
INPUTS.— 4
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided 5
in clause (ii), the information required 6
under subparagraph (A) shall be generated 7
based on a single set of questions developed 8
by the Secretary for purposes of capturing 9
the information specified in paragraph (2) 10
and using the data elements described in 11
section 132(f)(2)(C)(ii). 12
‘‘(ii) FAFSA-
BASED ESTIMATE.—When 13
an individual submits a Free Application 14
for Federal Student Aid described in section 15
483, the information required under sub-16
paragraph (A) shall be automatically gen-17
erated based solely on the contents of such 18
application and the data elements described 19
in section 132(f)(2)(C)(ii). 20
‘‘(C) I
NTEGRATION WITH OTHER FEDERAL 21
FINANCIAL AID RESOURCES .—The Secretary 22
shall ensure that a website link or other means 23
of accessing the Universal Net Price Calculator 24
is included on— 25
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‘‘(i) the College Scorecard website; and 1
‘‘(ii) the FAFSA website. 2
‘‘(D) R
ELATIONSHIP TO EARLY ESTIMATOR 3
TOOL.—Beginning on the date on which the Uni-4
versal Net Price Calculator becomes operational, 5
the Secretary shall remove from the FAFSA 6
website the electronic estimator maintained pur-7
suant to section 485E(b)(4). 8
‘‘(5) U
PDATES.— 9
‘‘(A) D
ATA.—The Secretary shall update the 10
Universal Net Price Calculator Website and Col-11
lege Scorecard website not less than annually. 12
‘‘(B) T
ECHNOLOGY AND FORMAT .—The Sec-13
retary shall regularly assess the format and tech-14
nology of the College Scorecard website and make 15
any changes or updates that the Secretary con-16
siders appropriate. 17
‘‘(6) C
ONSUMER TESTING.—In developing and 18
maintaining the College Scorecard website, the Sec-19
retary, in consultation with appropriate departments 20
and agencies of the Federal Government— 21
‘‘(A) not later than 6 months after the date 22
of the enactment of the College Cost Reduction 23
Act, and not less than once every 3 years there-24
after, shall conduct consumer testing with appro-25
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priate persons, including current and prospective 1
college students, family members of such stu-2
dents, institutions of higher education, and ex-3
perts, to ensure that the College Scorecard 4
website is usable and easily understandable and 5
provides useful and relevant information to stu-6
dents and families; and 7
‘‘(B) prominently shall display on such 8
website in simple, understandable, and unbiased 9
terms for the most recent academic year for 10
which satisfactory data is available, the informa-11
tion described in paragraphs (1) and (2) that 12
was determined to be useful and relevant to stu-13
dents and families based on the consumer testing 14
described in subparagraph (A) for each institu-15
tion and program of study (as applicable). 16
‘‘(7) I
NTERAGENCY COORDINATION .—The Sec-17
retary, in consultation with each appropriate head of 18
a department or agency of the Federal Government, 19
shall ensure, to the greatest extent practicable, that 20
any information related to higher education that is 21
published by such department or agency is consistent 22
with the information published on the College Score-23
card website. 24
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‘‘(8) DATA COLLECTION AND DUPLICATED RE -1
PORTING.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 2
this section, to the extent that another provision of 3
this section requires the same reporting or collection 4
of data that is required under this Act, an institution 5
of higher education, or the Secretary or Commis-6
sioner, shall use the reporting or data required under 7
this subsection to satisfy both requirements. 8
‘‘(9) D
ATA PRIVACY.— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall en-10
sure any information made available under this 11
section is made available in accordance with the 12
privacy laws described in section 13
132(f)(1)(C)(iv). 14
‘‘(B) S
MALL INSTITUTIONS AND PROGRAM 15
OF STUDY.—For purposes of publishing the in-16
formation described in paragraphs (1) and (2), 17
for any year for which the number of students is 18
determined by the Secretary to be of insufficient 19
size to maintain the privacy of student data , the 20
Secretary shall— 21
‘‘(i) aggregate up to 4 years of addi-22
tional data for such program of study to ob-23
tain data for a sufficient number of stu-24
dents to maintain student privacy; 25
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‘‘(ii) in the case of a program of study, 1
if the method described in clause (i) is in-2
sufficient to maintain student privacy, ag-3
gregate data for students who completed or 4
who were enrolled in, as applicable, similar 5
program of study of the institution to ob-6
tain data for a sufficient number of stu-7
dents to maintain student privacy; and 8
‘‘(iii) in the case of a program of 9
study, if the methods described in clauses (i) 10
and (ii) are insufficient to maintain stu-11
dent privacy, or additional data described 12
in such clauses is not available or can not 13
be aggregated, aggregate data with respect 14
to all students who completed or were en-15
rolled in, as applicable, any program of 16
study of the institution of the same creden-17
tial level, in lieu of data specific to students 18
in such program of study.’’. 19
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.—The Higher Edu-20
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.), as amended 21
by subsection (a) of this section, is further amended by 22
striking ‘‘College Navigator’’ each place it appears and in-23
serting ‘‘College Scorecard’’. 24
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(c) REFERENCES.—Any reference in any law (other 1
than the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 2
et seq.)), regulation, document, record, or other paper of the 3
United States to the College Navigator website shall be con-4
sidered to be a reference to the College Scorecard website. 5
SEC. 113. POSTSECONDARY STUDENT DATA SYSTEM. 6
Section 132 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 7
U.S.C. 1015a) is further amended— 8
(1) by redesignating subsections (j) and (k) as 9
subsections (d) and (e), respectively; 10
(2) by redesignating subsection (l) as subsection 11
(g); and 12
(3) by inserting after subsection (e), as so redes-13
ignated, the following: 14
‘‘(f) P
OSTSECONDARYSTUDENTDATASYSTEM.— 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 16
‘‘(A) E
STABLISHMENT OF SYSTEM .—Not 17
later than 3 years after the date of enactment of 18
the College Cost Reduction Act, the Commis-19
sioner of the National Center for Education Sta-20
tistics (referred to in this subsection as the ‘Com-21
missioner’) in consultation with the Director of 22
the Institute of Education Sciences (referred to 23
as ‘the Director’) shall develop and maintain a 24
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secure and privacy-protected postsecondary stu-1
dent-level data system in order to— 2
‘‘(i) accurately evaluate student enroll-3
ment patterns, progression, completion, and 4
postcollegiate outcomes, and higher edu-5
cation costs and financial aid; 6
‘‘(ii) assist with transparency, institu-7
tional improvement, and analysis of Fed-8
eral aid programs; 9
‘‘(iii) provide accurate, complete, and 10
customizable information for students and 11
families making decisions about postsec-12
ondary education; and 13
‘‘(iv) to the extent practicable, reduce 14
the reporting burden on institutions of high-15
er education in accordance with section 111 16
of the College Cost Reduction Act. 17
‘‘(B) A
VOIDING DUPLICATE REPORTING .— 18
Notwithstanding any other provision of this sec-19
tion, to the extent that another provision of this 20
section requires the same reporting or collection 21
of data that is required under this subsection, an 22
institution of higher education, or the Secretary 23
or Commissioner, shall use the reporting or data 24
required for the postsecondary student data sys-25
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tem under this subsection to satisfy both require-1
ments. 2
‘‘(C) D
EVELOPMENT PROCESS .—In devel-3
oping the postsecondary student data system de-4
scribed in this subsection, the Commissioner, in 5
consultation with the Director, shall— 6
‘‘(i) focus on the needs of— 7
‘‘(I) users of the data system; and 8
‘‘(II) entities, including institu-9
tions of higher education, reporting to 10
the data system; 11
‘‘(ii) take into consideration, to the ex-12
tent practicable— 13
‘‘(I) the guidelines outlined in— 14
‘‘(aa) the ‘United States Web 15
Design Standards’ maintained by 16
the General Services Administra-17
tion; and 18
‘‘(bb) the ‘Digital Services 19
Playbook’ and ‘TechFAR Hand-20
book for Procuring Digital Serv-21
ices Using Agile Processes’ of the 22
United States Digital Service; 23
and 24
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‘‘(II) the relevant successor docu-1
ments or recommendations of such 2
guidelines; 3
‘‘(iii) use modern, relevant privacy- 4
and security-enhancing technology, and en-5
hance and update the data system as nec-6
essary to carry out the purpose of this sub-7
section; 8
‘‘(iv) ensure data privacy and security 9
is consistent with any relevant Federal law 10
relating to privacy or data security, includ-11
ing— 12
‘‘(I) the requirements of sub-13
chapter II of chapter 35 of title 44, 14
United States Code, specifying security 15
categorization under the Federal Infor-16
mation Processing Standards or any 17
relevant successor of such standards; 18
‘‘(II) security requirements that 19
are consistent with the Federal agency 20
responsibilities in section 3554 of title 21
44, United States Code, or any rel-22
evant successor of such responsibilities; 23
and 24
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‘‘(III) security requirements, 1
guidelines, and controls consistent with 2
cybersecurity standards and best prac-3
tices developed by the National Insti-4
tute of Standards and Technology, in-5
cluding frameworks, consistent with 6
section 2(c) of the National Institute of 7
Standards and Technology Act (15 8
U.S.C. 272(c)), or any relevant suc-9
cessor of such frameworks; 10
‘‘(v) follow Federal data minimization 11
practices to ensure only the minimum 12
amount of data is collected to meet the sys-13
tem’s goals, in accordance with Federal 14
data minimization standards and guide-15
lines developed by the National Institute of 16
Standards and Technology; and 17
‘‘(vi) provide notice to students out-18
lining the data included in the system and 19
how the data are used. 20
‘‘(D) L
IMITATION.—The data system devel-21
oped under this subsection may only include 22
data with respect to— 23
‘‘(i) students receiving— 24
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‘‘(I) Federal financial assistance 1
under title IV of this Act; or 2
‘‘(II) assistance described in sec-3
tion 131(f)(4) administered, sponsored, 4
or supported by the Department of De-5
fense or the Department of Veterans 6
Affairs; and 7
‘‘(ii) participants in a program de-8
scribed in section 116(b)(3)(A)(ii) of the 9
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act 10
(29 U.S.C. 3131(b)(3)(A)(ii)). 11
‘‘(2) D
ATA ELEMENTS.— 12
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 3 years 13
after the date of enactment of the College Cost 14
Reduction Act, the Commissioner, in consulta-15
tion with the Postsecondary Student Data Sys-16
tem Advisory Committee and the Director, estab-17
lished under subparagraph (B), shall deter-18
mine— 19
‘‘(i) the data elements to be included in 20
the postsecondary student data system, in 21
accordance with subparagraphs (C) and 22
(D); and 23
‘‘(ii) how to include the data elements 24
required under subparagraph (C), and any 25
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additional data elements selected under sub-1
paragraph (D), in the postsecondary stu-2
dent data system. 3
‘‘(B) P
OSTSECONDARY STUDENT DATA SYS -4
TEM ADVISORY COMMITTEE .— 5
‘‘(i) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 6
1 year after the date of enactment of the 7
College Cost Reduction Act, the Commis-8
sioner, in consultation with the Director, 9
shall establish a Postsecondary Student 10
Data System Advisory Committee (referred 11
to in this subsection as the ‘Advisory Com-12
mittee’), whose members shall include— 13
‘‘(I) the Chief Privacy Officer of 14
the Department or an official of the 15
Department delegated the duties of 16
overseeing data privacy at the Depart-17
ment; 18
‘‘(II) the Chief Security Officer of 19
the Department or an official of the 20
Department delegated the duties of 21
overseeing data security at the Depart-22
ment; 23
‘‘(III) representatives of diverse 24
institutions of higher education, which 25
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shall include equal representation be-1
tween 2-year and 4-year institutions of 2
higher education, and from public, 3
nonprofit, and proprietary institutions 4
of higher education, including minor-5
ity-serving institutions; 6
‘‘(IV) representatives from State 7
higher education agencies, entities, 8
bodies, or boards; 9
‘‘(V) representatives of postsec-10
ondary students; 11
‘‘(VI) representatives from rel-12
evant Federal agencies; 13
‘‘(VII) individuals with expertise 14
in data privacy and security; 15
‘‘(VIII) the individual within a 16
State responsible for administering the 17
statewide, longitudinal data system de-18
scribed in section 208 of the Education 19
Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 20
U.S.C. 9607(a)); and 21
‘‘(IX) other stakeholders (includ-22
ing individuals with consumer protec-23
tion and postsecondary education re-24
search). 25
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‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENTS.—The Commis-1
sioner, working with the Director, shall en-2
sure that the Advisory Committee— 3
‘‘(I) adheres to all requirements 4
under chapter 10 of title 5, United 5
States Code (commonly known as the 6
‘Federal Advisory Committee Act’); 7
‘‘(II) establishes operating and 8
meeting procedures and guidelines nec-9
essary to execute its advisory duties; 10
and 11
‘‘(III) is provided with appro-12
priate staffing and resources to execute 13
its advisory duties. 14
‘‘(C) R
EQUIRED DATA ELEMENTS .—The 15
data elements in the postsecondary student data 16
system shall include the following: 17
‘‘(i) Student-level data elements nec-18
essary to calculate the information within 19
the surveys designated by the Commissioner 20
as ‘student-related surveys’ in the Inte-21
grated Postsecondary Education Data Sys-22
tem (IPEDS), as such surveys are in effect 23
on the day before the date of enactment of 24
the College Cost Reduction Act, except that 25
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in the case that collection of such elements 1
would conflict with the prohibition under 2
subparagraph (F), such elements in conflict 3
with such prohibition shall be included in 4
the aggregate instead of at the student level. 5
‘‘(ii) Student-level data elements re-6
ported by institutions in accordance with 7
section 668.408 of title 34, Code of Federal 8
Regulations, as in effect on July 1, 2024. 9
‘‘(iii) Student-level data elements nec-10
essary to allow for reporting student enroll-11
ment, persistence, progression (including 12
credit accumulation) retention, transfer, 13
completion, and time and credits to creden-14
tial measures for all credential levels sepa-15
rately (including certificate, associate, bac-16
calaureate, and advanced degree levels), 17
within and across institutions of higher 18
education (including across all categories of 19
institution level, control, and predominant 20
degree awarded). The data elements shall 21
allow for reporting about all such data 22
disaggregated by the following categories: 23
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‘‘(I) Enrollment status as a first- 1
time student, recent transfer student, 2
or other nonfirst-time student. 3
‘‘(II) Attendance intensity, wheth-4
er full-time or part-time. 5
‘‘(III) Credential-seeking status, 6
by credential level (including non-7
credit-seeking and noncredit creden-8
tials). 9
‘‘(IV) Race or ethnicity, in a 10
manner that captures all the racial 11
groups specified in the most recent 12
American Community Survey of the 13
Bureau of the Census. 14
‘‘(V) Age intervals. 15
‘‘(VI) Sex. 16
‘‘(VII) Status as a first genera-17
tion college student (as defined in sec-18
tion 402A(h)). 19
‘‘(VIII) Economic status. 20
‘‘(IX) Measures related to college 21
readiness, including participation in 22
postsecondary remedial coursework or 23
gateway course completion. 24
‘‘(X) Program of study. 25
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‘‘(XI) Status as an online edu-1
cation student, whether exclusively or 2
partially enrolled in online education. 3
‘‘(XII) Military or veteran benefit 4
status (as determined based on receipt 5
of veteran’s education benefits, as de-6
fined in section 480(c)). 7
‘‘(XIII) Federal Pell Grant recipi-8
ent status under section 401 and Fed-9
eral loan recipient status under title 10
IV. 11
‘‘(XIV) Status as a participant in 12
a program described in section 13
116(b)(3)(A)(ii) of the Workforce Inno-14
vation and Opportunity Act (29 15
U.S.C. 3131(b)(3)(A)(ii)). 16
‘‘(D) R
EEVALUATION.—Not less than once 17
every 3 years after the implementation of the 18
postsecondary student data system described in 19
this subsection, the Commissioner, in consulta-20
tion with the Advisory Committee described in 21
subparagraph (B) and working with the Direc-22
tor, shall report to Congress the data elements 23
included in the postsecondary student data sys-24
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tem and recommend any additional data ele-1
ments to be included in such system. 2
‘‘(E) P
ROHIBITIONS.—The postsecondary 3
student data system shall not include individual 4
health data (including data relating to physical 5
health or mental health), student discipline 6
records or data, elementary and secondary edu-7
cation data, an exact address, course grades, 8
postsecondary entrance examination results, po-9
litical affiliation, religion, or any other data in 10
the postsecondary student data system not de-11
scribed in this subsection. 12
‘‘(3) P
ERIODIC MATCHING WITH OTHER FEDERAL 13
DATA SYSTEMS.— 14
‘‘(A) D
ATA SHARING AGREEMENTS .— 15
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner, 16
in consultation with the Director, shall en-17
sure secure and privacy-protected periodic 18
data matches by entering into data sharing 19
agreements with each of the following Fed-20
eral agencies and offices: 21
‘‘(I) The Secretary of the Treas-22
ury and the Commissioner of the Inter-23
nal Revenue Service, in order to cal-24
culate aggregate program- and institu-25
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tion-level earnings of postsecondary 1
students described in subparagraph 2
(B)(ii). 3
‘‘(II) The Secretary of Defense, in 4
order to assess the use of postsecondary 5
educational benefits and the outcomes 6
of servicemembers who are receiving 7
veteran’s education benefits (as defined 8
in section 480(c)). 9
‘‘(III) The Secretary of Veterans 10
Affairs, in order to assess the use of 11
postsecondary educational benefits and 12
outcomes of veterans who are receiving 13
veteran’s education benefits (as defined 14
in section 480(c)). 15
‘‘(IV) The Director of the Bureau 16
of the Census, in order to assess the 17
employment outcomes of former post-18
secondary education students described 19
in paragraph (1)(D). 20
‘‘(V) The Chief Operating Officer 21
of the Office of Federal Student Aid, in 22
order to analyze the use of postsec-23
ondary educational benefits provided 24
under this Act. 25
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‘‘(VI) The Commissioner of the 1
Social Security Administration, in 2
order to evaluate labor market out-3
comes of former postsecondary edu-4
cation students described in paragraph 5
(1)(D). 6
‘‘(VII) The Secretary of Health 7
and Human Services, in order to 8
evaluate the wages of former postsec-9
ondary education students described in 10
paragraph (1)(D). 11
‘‘(ii) D
ATA SHARING AGREEMENTS .— 12
The heads of Federal agencies and offices 13
described under clause (i) shall enter into 14
data sharing agreements with the Commis-15
sioner to ensure secure and privacy-pro-16
tected periodic data matches as described in 17
this paragraph. 18
‘‘(B) C
ATEGORIES OF DATA.—The Commis-19
sioner, in consultation with the Director, shall, 20
at a minimum, seek to ensure that the secure 21
and privacy-protected periodic data matches de-22
scribed in subparagraph (A) permit consistent 23
reporting of the following categories of data for 24
students described in paragraph (1)(D) who 25
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completed a program of study and who did not 1
complete a program of study: 2
‘‘(i) Enrollment, retention, transfer, 3
and completion outcomes. 4
‘‘(ii) Financial indicators for postsec-5
ondary students receiving Federal grants 6
and loans, including grant and loan aid by 7
source, cumulative student debt, loan repay-8
ment status, and repayment plan. 9
‘‘(iii) Post-completion outcomes, in-10
cluding earnings and employment (includ-11
ing industry, occupation, and location of 12
employment, and further education, by pro-13
gram of study and credential level) and as 14
measured at time intervals appropriate to 15
the credential sought and earned. 16
‘‘(C) P
ERIODIC DATA MATCH STREAMLINING 17
AND CONFIDENTIALITY.— 18
‘‘(i) S
TREAMLINING.—In carrying out 19
the secure and privacy-protected periodic 20
data matches under this paragraph, the 21
Commissioner shall— 22
‘‘(I) ensure that such matches are 23
not continuous, but occur only periodi-24
cally at appropriate intervals, as de-25
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termined by the Commissioner to meet 1
the goals of subparagraph (A); and 2
‘‘(II) seek to— 3
‘‘(aa) streamline the data 4
collection and reporting require-5
ments for institutions of higher 6
education; 7
‘‘(bb) minimize duplicative 8
reporting across or within Federal 9
agencies or departments, includ-10
ing reporting requirements appli-11
cable to institutions of higher edu-12
cation under the Workforce Inno-13
vation and Opportunity Act (29 14
U.S.C. 3101 et seq.) and the Carl 15
D. Perkins Career and Technical 16
Education Act of 2006; 17
‘‘(cc) protect student privacy; 18
and 19
‘‘(dd) streamline the applica-20
tion process for student loan ben-21
efit programs available to bor-22
rowers based on data available 23
from different Federal data sys-24
tems. 25
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‘‘(ii) REVIEW.—Not less often than 1
once every 3 years after the establishment of 2
the postsecondary student data system 3
under this subsection, the Commissioner, in 4
consultation with the Advisory Committee 5
and the Director, shall review methods for 6
streamlining data collection from institu-7
tions of higher education and minimizing 8
duplicative reporting within the Depart-9
ment and across Federal agencies that pro-10
vide data for the postsecondary student data 11
system. 12
‘‘(iii) C
ONFIDENTIALITY.—The Com-13
missioner shall ensure that any periodic 14
matching or sharing of data through peri-15
odic data system matches established in ac-16
cordance with this paragraph— 17
‘‘(I) complies with the security 18
and privacy protections described in 19
paragraph (1)(C)(iv) and other Fed-20
eral data protection protocols; 21
‘‘(II) follows industry best prac-22
tices commensurate with the sensitivity 23
of specific data elements or metrics; 24
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‘‘(III) does not result in the cre-1
ation of a single standing, linked Fed-2
eral database at the Department that 3
maintains the information reported 4
across other Federal agencies; and 5
‘‘(IV) discloses to postsecondary 6
students what data are included in the 7
data system and periodically matched 8
and how the data are used. 9
‘‘(iv) C
ORRECTION.—The Commis-10
sioner, in consultation with the Advisory 11
Committee and Director, shall establish a 12
process for students to request access to only 13
their personal information for inspection 14
and request corrections to inaccuracies in a 15
manner that protects the student’s person-16
ally identifiable information. The Commis-17
sioner shall respond in writing to every re-18
quest for a correction from a student. 19
‘‘(4) P
UBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION .— 20
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner shall 21
make the summary aggregate information de-22
scribed in subparagraph (C), at a minimum, 23
publicly available through a user-friendly con-24
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sumer information website and analytic tool for 1
institutional and research use that— 2
‘‘(i) provides appropriate mechanisms 3
for users to customize and filter information 4
by institutional and student characteristics; 5
‘‘(ii) allows users to build summary 6
aggregate reports of information, including 7
reports that allow comparisons across mul-8
tiple institutions and programs, subject to 9
subparagraph (B); 10
‘‘(iii) uses appropriate statistical dis-11
closure limitation techniques necessary to 12
ensure that the data released to the public 13
cannot be used to identify specific individ-14
uals; and 15
‘‘(iv) provides users with appropriate 16
contextual factors to make comparisons, 17
which may include national median figures 18
of the summary aggregate information de-19
scribed in subparagraph (C). 20
‘‘(B) N
O PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFOR -21
MATION AVAILABLE.—The summary aggregate 22
information described in this paragraph shall 23
not include personally identifiable information. 24
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‘‘(C) SUMMARY AGGREGATE INFORMATION 1
AVAILABLE.—The summary aggregate informa-2
tion described in this paragraph shall, at a min-3
imum, include each of the following for each in-4
stitution of higher education: 5
‘‘(i) Measures of student access, includ-6
ing— 7
‘‘(I) admissions selectivity and 8
yield; and 9
‘‘(II) enrollment, disaggregated by 10
each category described in paragraph 11
(2)(C)(iii). 12
‘‘(ii) Measures of student progression, 13
including retention rates and persistence 14
rates, disaggregated by each category de-15
scribed in paragraph (2)(C)(iii). 16
‘‘(iii) Measures of student completion, 17
including— 18
‘‘(I) transfer rates and outcomes, 19
completion rates, and time and credits 20
to credential, disaggregated by each 21
category described in paragraph 22
(2)(C)(iii); and 23
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‘‘(II) number of completions, 1
disaggregated by each category de-2
scribed in paragraph (2)(C)(iii). 3
‘‘(iv) Measures of student costs, includ-4
ing— 5
‘‘(I) tuition, required fees, cost of 6
attendance, grants and scholarships, 7
net price, and unmet need 8
disaggregated by in-State tuition or 9
in-district tuition status (if applica-10
ble), direct and indirect costs, program 11
of study (if applicable), and credential 12
level; and 13
‘‘(II) typical grant amounts and 14
loan amounts received by students re-15
ported separately from Federal, State, 16
local, institutional, employers, and 17
other sources, and cumulative debt, 18
disaggregated by— 19
‘‘(aa) each category described 20
in paragraph (2)(C)(iii); and 21
‘‘(bb) completion status. 22
‘‘(v) Measures of postcollegiate student 23
outcomes, including return on investment, 24
employment rates, earnings, loan repay-25
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ment and default rates, and further edu-1
cation rates. These measures shall— 2
‘‘(I) be disaggregated by— 3
‘‘(aa) each category described 4
in paragraph (2)(C)(iii); and 5
‘‘(bb) completion status; and 6
‘‘(II) be measured immediately 7
after leaving postsecondary education 8
and at time intervals appropriate to 9
the credential sought or earned. 10
‘‘(D) D
EVELOPMENT CRITERIA .—In devel-11
oping the method and format of making the in-12
formation described in this paragraph publicly 13
available, the Commissioner shall— 14
‘‘(i) focus on the needs of the users of 15
the information, which will include stu-16
dents, families of students, potential stu-17
dents, researchers, and other consumers of 18
education data; 19
‘‘(ii) take into consideration, to the ex-20
tent practicable, the guidelines described in 21
paragraph (1)(C)(ii)(I), and relevant suc-22
cessor documents or recommendations of 23
such guidelines; 24
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‘‘(iii) use modern, relevant technology 1
and enhance and update the postsecondary 2
student data system with information, as 3
necessary to carry out the purpose of this 4
paragraph; 5
‘‘(iv) ensure data privacy and security 6
in accordance with standards and guide-7
lines developed by the National Institute of 8
Standards and Technology, and in accord-9
ance with any other Federal law relating to 10
privacy or security, including complying 11
with the requirements of subchapter II of 12
chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, 13
specifying security categorization under the 14
Federal Information Processing Standards, 15
and security requirements, and setting of 16
National Institute of Standards and Tech-17
nology security baseline controls at the ap-18
propriate level; and 19
‘‘(v) conduct consumer testing to deter-20
mine how to make the information as 21
meaningful to users as possible. 22
‘‘(5) P
ERMISSIBLE DISCLOSURES OF DATA .— 23
‘‘(A) D
ATA REPORTS AND QUERIES .— 24
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‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 1
years after the date of enactment of the Col-2
lege Cost Reduction Act, the Commissioner 3
in consultation with the Director, shall de-4
velop and implement a secure and privacy- 5
protected process for making student-level, 6
nonpersonally identifiable information, 7
with direct identifiers removed, from the 8
postsecondary student data system available 9
for vetted research and evaluation purposes 10
approved by the Commissioner in a manner 11
compatible with practices for disclosing Na-12
tional Center for Education Statistics re-13
stricted-use survey data as in effect on the 14
day before the date of enactment of the Col-15
lege Cost Reduction Act, or by applying 16
other research and disclosure restrictions to 17
ensure data privacy and security. Such 18
process shall be approved by the National 19
Center for Education Statistics’ Disclosure 20
Review Board (or successor body). 21
‘‘(ii) P
ROVIDING DATA REPORTS AND 22
QUERIES TO INSTITUTIONS AND STATES .— 23
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—The Commis-24
sioner shall provide feedback reports, at 25
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least annually, to each institution of 1
higher education, each postsecondary 2
education system that fully partici-3
pates in the postsecondary student 4
data system, and each State higher 5
education body as designated by the 6
governor. 7
‘‘(II) F
EEDBACK REPORTS .—The 8
feedback reports provided under this 9
clause shall include program-level and 10
institution-level information from the 11
postsecondary student data system re-12
garding students who are associated 13
with the institution or, for State rep-14
resentatives, the institutions within 15
that State, on or before the date of the 16
report, on measures including student 17
mobility (including transfer and com-18
pletion rates) and workforce outcomes, 19
provided that the feedback aggregate 20
summary reports protect the privacy of 21
individuals. 22
‘‘(III) D
ETERMINATION OF CON -23
TENT.—The content of the feedback re-24
ports shall be determined by the Com-25
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missioner in consultation with the Ad-1
visory Committee and the Director. 2
‘‘(iii) P
ERMITTING STATE DATA QUE -3
RIES.—The Commissioner shall, in con-4
sultation with the Advisory Committee and 5
as soon as practicable, create a process 6
through which States may submit lists of 7
secondary school graduates within the State 8
to receive summary aggregate outcomes for 9
those students who enrolled at an institu-10
tion of higher education, including postsec-11
ondary enrollment, retention and transfer, 12
and college completion, provided that those 13
data protect the privacy of individuals and 14
that the State data submitted to the Com-15
missioner are not stored in the postsec-16
ondary education system. 17
‘‘(iv) R
EGULATIONS.—The Commis-18
sioner shall promulgate regulations to en-19
sure fair, secure and privacy-protected, and 20
equitable access to data reports and queries 21
under this paragraph. 22
‘‘(B) D
ISCLOSURE LIMITATIONS.—In car-23
rying out the public reporting and disclosure re-24
quirements of this subsection, the Commissioner 25
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shall use appropriate statistical disclosure limi-1
tation techniques necessary to ensure that the 2
data released to the public cannot include per-3
sonally identifiable information or be used to 4
identify specific individuals. 5
‘‘(C) S
ALE OF DATA PROHIBITED .—Data 6
collected under this subsection, including the 7
public-use data set and data comprising the 8
summary aggregate information available under 9
paragraph (4), shall not be sold to any third 10
party by the Commissioner, including any insti-11
tution of higher education or any other entity. 12
‘‘(D) L
IMITATION ON USE BY OTHER FED -13
ERAL AGENCIES.— 14
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner 15
shall not allow any other Federal agency to 16
use data collected under this subsection for 17
any purpose except— 18
‘‘(I) for vetted research and eval-19
uation conducted by the other Federal 20
agency, as described in subparagraph 21
(A)(i); or 22
‘‘(II) for a purpose explicitly au-23
thorized by an Act of Congress. 24
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‘‘(ii) PROHIBITION ON LIMITATION OF 1
SERVICES.—The Secretary, or the head of 2
any other Federal agency, shall not use data 3
collected under this subsection to limit serv-4
ices to students. 5
‘‘(E) L
AW ENFORCEMENT .—Personally 6
identifiable information collected under this sub-7
section shall not be used for any Federal, State, 8
or local law enforcement activity or any other 9
activity that would result in adverse action 10
against any student or a student’s family. 11
‘‘(F) L
IMITATION OF USE FOR FEDERAL 12
RANKINGS OR SUMMATIVE RATING SYSTEM .—The 13
comprehensive data collection and analysis nec-14
essary for the postsecondary student data system 15
under this subsection shall not be used by the 16
Secretary or any Federal entity to establish any 17
Federal ranking system of institutions of higher 18
education or a system that results in a 19
summative Federal rating of institutions of high-20
er education. 21
‘‘(G) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 22
this paragraph shall be construed to prevent the 23
use of individual categories of aggregate infor-24
mation to be used for accountability purposes. 25
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‘‘(H) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION REGARDING 1
COMMERCIAL USE OF DATA .—Nothing in this 2
paragraph shall be construed to prohibit third- 3
party entities from using publicly available in-4
formation in this data system for commercial 5
use. 6
‘‘(6) S
UBMISSION OF DATA.— 7
‘‘(A) R
EQUIRED SUBMISSION.—Each insti-8
tution of higher education participating in a 9
program under title IV, or the assigned agent of 10
such institution, shall, for each instructional 11
program, and in accordance with section 12
487(a)(17), collect, and submit to the Commis-13
sioner, the data requested by the Commissioner 14
to carry out this subsection. 15
‘‘(B) V
OLUNTARY SUBMISSION.—Any insti-16
tution of higher education not participating in 17
a program under title IV may voluntarily par-18
ticipate in the postsecondary student data system 19
under this subsection by collecting and submit-20
ting data to the Commissioner, as the Commis-21
sioner may request to carry out this subsection. 22
‘‘(C) P
ERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMA -23
TION.—In accordance with paragraph (2)(C)(i), 24
if the submission of an element of student-level 25
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data is prohibited under paragraph (2)(F) (or 1
otherwise prohibited by law), the institution of 2
higher education shall submit that data to the 3
Commissioner in the aggregate. 4
‘‘(7) U
NLAWFUL WILLFUL DISCLOSURE .— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for 6
any person who obtains or has access to person-7
ally identifiable information in connection with 8
the postsecondary student data system described 9
in this subsection to willfully disclose to any per-10
son (except as authorized in this Act or by any 11
Federal law) such personally identifiable infor-12
mation. 13
‘‘(B) P
ENALTY.—Any person who violates 14
subparagraph (A) shall be subject to a penalty 15
described under section 3572(f) of title 44, 16
United States Code, and section 183(d)(6) of the 17
Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 18
U.S.C. 9573(d)(6)). 19
‘‘(C) E
MPLOYEE OF OFFICER OF THE 20
UNITED STATES.—If a violation of subparagraph 21
(A) is committed by any officer or employee of 22
the United States, the officer or employee shall be 23
dismissed from office or discharged from employ-24
ment upon conviction for the violation. 25
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‘‘(8) DATA SECURITY.—The Commissioner shall 1
produce and update as needed guidance and regula-2
tions relating to privacy, security, and access which 3
shall govern the use and disclosure of data collected 4
in connection with the activities authorized in this 5
subsection. The guidance and regulations developed 6
and reviewed shall protect data from unauthorized ac-7
cess, use, and disclosure, and shall include— 8
‘‘(A) an audit capability, including manda-9
tory and regularly conducted audits; 10
‘‘(B) access controls; 11
‘‘(C) requirements to ensure sufficient data 12
security, quality, validity, and reliability; 13
‘‘(D) confidentiality protection in accord-14
ance with the applicable provisions of subchapter 15
III of chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code; 16
‘‘(E) appropriate and applicable privacy 17
and security protection, including data retention 18
and destruction protocols and data minimiza-19
tion, in accordance with the most recent Federal 20
standards developed by the National Institute of 21
Standards and Technology; and 22
‘‘(F) protocols for managing a breach, in-23
cluding breach notifications, in accordance with 24
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the standards of National Center for Education 1
Statistics. 2
‘‘(9) D
ATA COLLECTION.—The Commissioner 3
shall ensure that data collection, maintenance, and 4
use under this subsection complies with section 552a 5
of title 5, United States Code. 6
‘‘(10) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 7
‘‘(A) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDU -8
CATION.—The term ‘institution of higher edu-9
cation’ has the meaning given the term in sec-10
tion 102. 11
‘‘(B) M
INORITY-SERVING INSTITUTION.— 12
The term ‘minority-serving institution’ means 13
an institution of higher education listed in sec-14
tion 371(a). 15
‘‘(C) P
ERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMA -16
TION.—The term ‘personally identifiable infor-17
mation’ means personally identifiable informa-18
tion within the meaning of section 444 of the 19
General Education Provisions Act.’’. 20
SEC. 114. DATABASE OF STUDENT INFORMATION PROHIB-21
ITED. 22
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 134(b) of the Higher Edu-23
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1015c(b)) is amended to read 24
as follows: 25
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‘‘(b) EXCEPTION.—The provisions of subsection (a) 1
shall not apply to a system (or a successor system)— 2
‘‘(1) that— 3
‘‘(A) is necessary for the operation of pro-4
grams authorized by title II, IV, or VII; and 5
‘‘(B) was in use by the Secretary, directly 6
or through a contractor, as of the day before the 7
date of enactment of the College Cost Reduction 8
Act; or 9
‘‘(2) required under section 132.’’. 10
(b) P
ROGRAMPARTICIPATIONAGREEMENTS.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Paragraph (17) of section 12
487(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 13
U.S.C. 1094(a)) is amended to read as follows: 14
‘‘(17) The institution or the assigned agent of the 15
institution will collect and submit to the Commis-16
sioner for Education Statistics data in accordance 17
with section 132(f), the non-student related surveys 18
within the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data 19
System (IPEDS), or any other Federal institution of 20
higher education data collection effort (as designated 21
by the Secretary), in a timely manner and to the sat-22
isfaction of the Secretary.’’. 23
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(2) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 1
paragraph (1) shall take effect no later than 3 years 2
after the date of enactment of this Act. 3
(c) R
EPORTINGBURDEN.—The Secretary of Education 4
and the Commissioner for Education Statistics shall take 5
such steps as are necessary to ensure that the development 6
and maintenance of the postsecondary student data system 7
required under section 132(f) of the Higher Education Act 8
of 1965, as added by section 113 of this Act, occurs in a 9
manner that, to the extent practicable, reduces the reporting 10
burden for entities that reported into the Integrated Postsec-11
ondary Education Data System (IPEDS). 12
TITLE II—ACCESS AND 13
AFFORDABILITY 14
PART A—FINANCIAL NEED 15
SEC. 201. AMOUNT OF NEED; COST OF ATTENDANCE; ME-16
DIAN COST OF COLLEGE. 17
(a) A
MOUNT OF NEED.—Section 471 (20 U.S.C. 18
1087kk), as amended by the FAFSA Simplification Act, is 19
further amended by amending paragraph (1) to read as fol-20
lows: 21
‘‘(1)(A) for award year 2024–2025, the cost of 22
attendance of such student; and 23
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‘‘(B) for award year 2025–2026 and each subse-1
quent award year, the median cost of college of the 2
program of study of such student, minus’’. 3
(b) C
OST OFATTENDANCE.—Section 472(c) (20 U.S.C. 4
1087ll(c)), as amended by the FAFSA Simplification Act, 5
is further amended by striking ‘‘of the institution’’ and in-6
serting ‘‘of each program of study at the institution’’. 7
(c) M
EDIANCOST OFCOLLEGE.—Part F of title IV 8
(20 U.S.C. 1087kk), as amended by the FAFSA Simplifica-9
tion Act, is further amended by inserting after section 472, 10
as amended by subsection (b), the following: 11
‘‘SEC. 472A. DETERMINATION OF MEDIAN COST OF COL-12
LEGE. 13
‘‘For the purpose of this title, the term ‘median cost 14
of college’, when used with respect to a program of study 15
offered by one or more institutions of higher education for 16
an award year, means the median of the cost of attendance 17
(as defined in section 472) for the program of study across 18
all institutions of higher education offering such a program 19
for the preceding award year.’’. 20
(d) E
XEMPTION OFCERTAINASSETS.— 21
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 480(f)(2) of the High-22
er Education Act of 1965, as amended by the FAFSA 23
Simplification Act, is further amended— 24
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(A) by striking ‘‘net value of the’’ and in-1
serting the following: ‘‘the net value of— 2
‘‘(A) the’’; 3
(B) by striking the period at the end and 4
inserting a semicolon; and 5
(C) by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(B) a family farm on which the family re-7
sides; or 8
‘‘(C) a small business with not more than 9
100 full-time or full-time equivalent employees 10
(or any part of such a small business) that is 11
owned and controlled by the family.’’. 12
(2) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made 13
by paragraph (1) shall take effect for award year 14
2025–2026 and each subsequent award year. 15
PART B—FINANCIAL AID 16
Subpart 1—Grants 17
SEC. 211. FEDERAL PELL GRANT PROGRAM. 18
Section 401(b)(3) (20 U.S.C. 1070a(b)(3)), as amended 19
by the FAFSA Simplification Act, is further amended to 20
read as follows: 21
‘‘(3) A
WARD MAY NOT EXCEED MEDIAN COST OF 22
COLLEGE.—With respect to award year 2025–2026 23
and each succeeding award year, no Federal Pell 24
Grant under this subpart shall exceed the median cost 25
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of college (as defined in section 472A) for the program 1
at which that student is in attendance. If, with re-2
spect to any student, it is determined that the amount 3
of a Federal Pell Grant for that student exceeds the 4
median cost of college for such program for that year, 5
the amount of the Federal Pell Grant shall be reduced 6
until the Federal Pell Grant does not exceed the me-7
dian cost of college for such program for that year.’’. 8
SEC. 212. CAMPUS-BASED AID PROGRAMS. 9
(a) T
ERMINATION OFCERTAINPROGRAMS.—Notwith-10
standing subparts 3 and 4 of part A, or part C, of title 11
IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 12
et seq.), or any other provision of law, except as expressly 13
authorized by an Act of Congress enacted after the date of 14
enactment of this Act, beginning on October 1, 2026, no 15
funds are authorized to be appropriated, or may be ex-16
pended, under this Act or any other Act to make payments 17
to States for the Leveraging Educational Assistance Part-18
nership Program under subpart 4 of part A of title IV (20 19
U.S.C. 1070c et seq.), and the authority of the Secretary 20
to carry out such program shall be terminated. 21
(b) P
ROMISEGRANTS.—Subpart 4 of part A of title 22
IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070c 23
et seq.) is amended to read as follows: 24
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‘‘Subpart 4—Promoting Real Opportunities to 1
Maximize Investments and Savings in Education 2
‘‘SEC. 415A. PURPOSE. 3
‘‘It is the purpose of this subpart to provide perform-4
ance-based grants to— 5
‘‘(1) assist institutions in providing certainty to 6
students and families about postsecondary afford-7
ability; 8
‘‘(2) increase postsecondary access and economic 9
mobility; and 10
‘‘(3) ensure that students, institutions, and tax-11
payers receive a financial return for investments in 12
postsecondary education. 13
‘‘SEC. 415B. PROMISE GRANTS. 14
‘‘For award year 2026–2027 and each succeeding 15
award year, from reserved funds remitted to the Secretary 16
in accordance with section 454(d) and additional funds au-17
thorized under section 415E, as necessary, the Secretary 18
shall award PROMISE grants to eligible institutions to 19
carry out the purpose of this subpart. PROMISE grants 20
awarded under this subpart shall be performance-based and 21
shall be awarded to each eligible institution for a 6-year 22
period in an amount that is determined in accordance with 23
section 415D. 24
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‘‘SEC. 415C. ELIGIBLE INSTITUTIONS; APPLICATION. 1
‘‘(a) E
LIGIBLEINSTITUTION.—To be eligible for a 2
PROMISE grant under this subpart, an institution shall— 3
‘‘(1) be an institution of higher education under 4
section 102, except that an institution described in 5
section 102(a)(1)(C) shall not be an eligible institu-6
tion under this subpart; and 7
‘‘(2) meet the maximum total price guarantee re-8
quirements under subsection (c). 9
‘‘(b) A
PPLICATION.—An eligible institution seeking a 10
PROMISE grant under this subpart (including a renewal 11
of such a grant) shall submit to the Secretary an applica-12
tion, at such time as the Secretary may require, that con-13
tains the information required in this subsection. Such ap-14
plication shall— 15
‘‘(1) demonstrate that the institution— 16
‘‘(A) meets the maximum total price guar-17
antee requirements under subsection (c); and 18
‘‘(B) will continue to meet the maximum 19
total price guarantee requirements for each 20
award year during the grant period with respect 21
to students first enrolling at the institution for 22
each such award year; 23
‘‘(2) describe how grant funds awarded under 24
this subpart will be used by the institution to carry 25
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out the purposes of this Act, including activities re-1
lated to— 2
‘‘(A) postsecondary affordability, includ-3
ing— 4
‘‘(i) the expansion and continuation of 5
the maximum total price guarantee require-6
ments under subsection (c); and 7
‘‘(ii) any other activities to be carried 8
out by the institution to increase postsec-9
ondary affordability and minimize the total 10
net price required for completion (as de-11
fined in section 132(a)) paid by students re-12
ceiving need-based student aid; 13
‘‘(B) postsecondary access, which may in-14
clude— 15
‘‘(i) the activities described in section 16
485E of this Act; and 17
‘‘(ii) any other activities to be carried 18
out by the institution to increase postsec-19
ondary access and expand opportunities for 20
low- and middle-income students; and 21
‘‘(C) postsecondary student success, which 22
may include— 23
‘‘(i) activities to improve completion 24
rates and reduce time to credential, includ-25
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ing the activities described in section 741 of 1
this Act, as amended by the College Cost Re-2
duction Act; 3
‘‘(ii) activities to align programs of 4
study with the needs of employers, including 5
with respect to in-demand industry sectors 6
or occupations (as defined in section 3 of 7
the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity 8
Act (29 U.S.C. 3102)); and 9
‘‘(iii) any other activities to be carried 10
out by the institution to increase value- 11
added earnings and postsecondary student 12
success; 13
‘‘(3) describe— 14
‘‘(A) how the institution will evaluate the 15
effectiveness of the institution’s use of grant 16
funds awarded under this subpart; and 17
‘‘(B) how the institution will collect and 18
disseminate information on promising practices 19
developed with the use of such grant funds; and 20
‘‘(4) in the case of an institution that has pre-21
viously received a grant under this subpart, contain 22
the evaluation required under paragraph (3) for each 23
previous grant. 24
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‘‘(c) MAXIMUMTOTALPRICEGUARANTEEREQUIRE-1
MENTS.—As a condition of eligibility for a PROMISE 2
grant under this subpart, an institution shall— 3
‘‘(1) for each award year beginning after the 4
date of enactment of the College Cost Reduction Act, 5
not later than one year before the start of each such 6
award year (except that, for the first award year be-7
ginning after such date of enactment, the institution 8
shall meet these requirements as soon as practicable 9
such date of enactment)— 10
‘‘(A) determine the maximum total price for 11
completion, in accordance with subsection (e), for 12
each program of study at the institution— 13
‘‘(i) applicable to students in each in-14
come category described in section 15
132(c)(2)(A)(i); and 16
‘‘(ii) applicable to students in each stu-17
dent aid index category determined by the 18
Secretary in accordance with section 19
132(c)(2)(A)(ii); and 20
‘‘(B) publish such information on the insti-21
tution’s website and in the institution’s catalog, 22
marketing materials, or other official publica-23
tions; 24
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‘‘(2) for the award year for which the institution 1
is applying for a PROMISE grant, and at least one 2
award year preceding such award year, provide to 3
each student who first enrolls, or plans to enroll, in 4
the institution during the award year and who re-5
ceives Federal financial aid under this title a max-6
imum total price guarantee, in accordance with this 7
section, for the minimum guarantee period applicable 8
to the student; and 9
‘‘(3) provide to the Secretary an assurance that 10
the institution will continue to meet each of the max-11
imum total price guarantee requirements under this 12
subsection for students who first enroll, or plan to en-13
roll, in the institution during each award year in-14
cluded in the grant period. 15
‘‘(d) D
URATION OFMINIMUMGUARANTEEPERIOD.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The minimum period during 17
which a student shall be provided a guarantee under 18
subsection (c) with respect to the maximum total 19
price for completion of a program of study at an in-20
stitution shall be the median time to credential of stu-21
dents who completed any undergraduate program of 22
study at the institution during the most recent award 23
year for which data are available, except that such 24
minimum guarantee period shall not be less than the 25
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program length of the program of study in which the 1
student is enrolled. 2
‘‘(2) L
IMITATION.—An institution shall not be 3
required to provide a maximum total price guarantee 4
under subsection (c) to a student after the conclusion 5
of the 6-year period beginning on the first day on 6
which the student enrolled at such institution. 7
‘‘(e) D
ETERMINATION OFMAXIMUMTOTALPRICE FOR 8
C
OMPLETION.— 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—For the purposes of sub-10
section (c), an institution shall determine, prior to 11
the first award year in which a student enrolls at the 12
institution, the maximum total price that may be 13
charged to the student for completion of a program of 14
study at the institution for the minimum guarantee 15
period applicable to a student, before application of 16
any Federal Pell Grants or other Federal financial 17
aid under this title. Such a maximum total price for 18
completion shall be determined for students in each 19
income category and student aid index category (as 20
determined in accordance with section 132(c)(2)(A)). 21
In determining the maximum total price for comple-22
tion to be charged to each such category of students, 23
the institution may consider the ability of a category 24
of students to pay tuition and fees (including the re-25
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quired costs described in section 124(b)(3)(A)(i)(I)), 1
but may not include in such consideration any Fed-2
eral Pell Grants or other Federal financial aid 3
awards that may be available to such category of stu-4
dents under this title. 5
‘‘(2) M
ULTIPLE MAXIMUM TOTAL PRICE GUARAN -6
TEES.—In the event that a student receives more than 7
one maximum total price guarantee because the stu-8
dent is included in more than one category of stu-9
dents for which the institution determines a max-10
imum total price guarantee amount for the purposes 11
of subsection (c), the maximum total price guarantee 12
applicable to such student for the purposes of this sec-13
tion shall be equal to the lowest such guarantee 14
amount. 15
‘‘SEC. 415D. GRANT AMOUNTS; FLEXIBLE USE OF FUNDS. 16
‘‘(a) G
RANTAMOUNTFORMULA.— 17
‘‘(1) F
ORMULA.—Subject to subsection (b), the 18
amount of a PROMISE grant for an eligible institu-19
tion for each year of the grant period shall be deter-20
mined by the Secretary annually and shall be equal 21
to— 22
‘‘(A) the amount determined by multi-23
plying— 24
‘‘(i) the lesser of— 25
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‘‘(I) the difference determined by 1
subtracting one from the quotient of— 2
‘‘(aa) the average, for the 3 3
most recent award years for which 4
data are available, of the median 5
value-added earnings (as defined 6
in section 103) for each such 7
award year of students who com-8
pleted any program of study of 9
the institution; divided by 10
‘‘(bb) the average for the 3 11
most recent award years, of the 12
maximum total price applicable 13
for each such award year to stu-14
dents enrolled in the institution 15
in any program of study who re-16
ceived financial aid under this 17
title; or 18
‘‘(II) the number two; 19
‘‘(ii) the average, for the 3 most recent 20
award years, of the total dollar amount of 21
Federal Pell Grants awarded to students en-22
rolled in the institution in each such award 23
year; and 24
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‘‘(iii) the average, for the 3 most recent 1
award years, of the percentage of low-in-2
come students who received Federal finan-3
cial assistance under this title who were en-4
rolled in the institution in each such award 5
year who— 6
‘‘(I) completed a program of study 7
at the institution within 100 percent of 8
the program length of such program; or 9
‘‘(II) only in the case of a two- 10
year institution or a less than two- 11
year institution— 12
‘‘(aa) transfer to a four-year 13
institution; and 14
‘‘(bb) within 4 years after 15
first enrolling at the two-year or 16
less than two-year institution, 17
complete a program of study at 18
the four-year institution for which 19
a bachelor’s degree (or substan-20
tially similar credential) is 21
awarded; minus 22
‘‘(B) the sum of— 23
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‘‘(i) the amount allocated to the insti-1
tution under part C of title IV for the most 2
recent fiscal year; and 3
‘‘(ii) the amount allocated to the insti-4
tution under subpart 3 of part A of title IV 5
for the most recent fiscal year. 6
‘‘(2) D
EFINITION OF LOW-INCOME.—In this sec-7
tion, the term ‘low-income’, when used with respect to 8
a student, means that the student’s family income 9
does not exceed the maximum income in the lowest in-10
come category described in section 132(c)(2)(A)(i). 11
‘‘(b) M
AXIMUMGRANTAMOUNT.—Notwithstanding 12
subsection (a), the maximum amount an eligible institution 13
may receive annually for a grant under this subpart shall 14
be the amount equal to— 15
‘‘(1) the average, for the 3 most recent award 16
years, of the number of students enrolled in the insti-17
tution in an award year who receive Federal finan-18
cial aid under this title; multiplied by 19
‘‘(2) $5,000. 20
‘‘(c) F
LEXIBLEUSE OFFUNDS.—A PROMISE grant 21
awarded under this subpart shall be used by an eligible in-22
stitution to carry out the purposes of this subpart, includ-23
ing— 24
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‘‘(1) carrying out activities included in the insti-1
tution’s application for such grant related to postsec-2
ondary affordability, access, and student success; and 3
‘‘(2) evaluating the effectiveness of the activities 4
carried out with such grant in accordance with sec-5
tion 415C(b)(3)(A); and 6
‘‘(3) collecting and disseminating promising 7
practices related to the activities carried out with 8
such grant, in accordance with section 415C(b)(3)(B). 9
‘‘(d) T
RANSFERAUTHORITY.—In order to offer an ar-10
rangement of types of aid which best fit the needs of each 11
individual student, an institution may transfer up to 100 12
percent of the institution’s allotment under subpart 3 of this 13
part or part C of this title (or both) to the institution’s 14
allotment under this section. Funds transferred to an insti-15
tution’s allotment under this section may be used as a part 16
of and for the same purposes as funds allotted under this 17
subpart. The Secretary shall have no control over such 18
transfer, except as specifically authorized, except for the col-19
lection and dissemination of information. 20
‘‘SEC. 415E. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 21
‘‘(a) U
SED OFRESERVEDFUNDS.— 22
‘‘(1) P
RIMARY FUNDS.—To carry out this sub-23
part, there shall be available to the Secretary any 24
funds remitted to the Secretary as reimbursements in 25
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accordance with section 454(d) for any award year; 1
and 2
‘‘(2) S
ECONDARY FUNDS .—Beginning award 3
year 2026–2027, if the amounts made available to the 4
Secretary under paragraph (1) to carry out this sub-5
part in any award year are insufficient to fully fund 6
the PROMISE grants awarded under this subpart in 7
such award year, there shall be available to the Sec-8
retary, in addition to such amounts, any funds re-9
turned to the Secretary under section 484B in the 10
previous award year. 11
‘‘(b) I
NSUFFICIENTFUNDS.—If the amounts made 12
available to the Secretary under subsection (a) to carry out 13
this subpart for are not sufficient to provide grants to all 14
eligible institutions in the amount determined under this 15
subpart for an award year, the Secretary shall first provide 16
grants to the eligible institutions that have the highest per-17
centage of students who are low-income students (as defined 18
in section 415D).’’. 19
(c) I
NSTITUTIONALREFUNDS.—Section 484B of the 20
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1091b) is amend-21
ed by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(f) R
ESERVATION OF FUNDS FOR PROMISE 23
G
RANTS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the 24
Secretary shall reserve the funds returned to the Secretary 25
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under this section for 1 year after the return of such funds 1
for the purpose of awarding PROMISE grants in accord-2
ance with subpart 4 of part A of this title.’’. 3
Subpart 2—Loans 4
SEC. 221. LOAN LIMITS. 5
(a) S
TAFFORDLOANS.— 6
(1) A
GGREGATE AND ANNUAL LIMITS FOR GRAD -7
UATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDENTS .—Section 455(a) 8
(20 U.S.C. 1087e(a)) is amended— 9
(A) in paragraph (3)— 10
(i) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by insert-11
ing before the period at the end the fol-12
lowing: ‘‘, except that for any period of in-13
struction beginning on or after July 1, 14
2025, such maximum annual amount shall 15
be determined in accordance with subpara-16
graph (C)’’; 17
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 18
before the period at the end the following: 19
‘‘for any period of instruction through June 20
30, 2025’’; and 21
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-22
lowing: 23
‘‘(C) A
NNUAL LIMITS.—Notwithstanding 24
any provision of this part or part B, for any pe-25
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riod of instruction beginning on or after July 1, 1
2025, the maximum annual amount of Federal 2
Direct Unsubsidized Stafford loans that a grad-3
uate or professional student may borrow in any 4
academic year (as defined in section 481(a)(2)) 5
or its equivalent shall be median cost of college 6
(as defined in section 472A) of the program of 7
study in which the student is enrolled, except 8
that the sum of such annual loan amount and 9
other financial assistance (as defined in section 10
480(i)) that the student receives for such aca-11
demic year may not exceed the cost of attendance 12
of such student. 13
‘‘(D) A
GGREGATE LIMITS .—Notwith-14
standing any provision of this part or part B, 15
for any period of instruction beginning on or 16
after July 1, 2025, the maximum aggregate 17
amount of Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford 18
loans that— 19
‘‘(i) a graduate student may borrow 20
shall be $100,000; and 21
‘‘(ii) a professional student may bor-22
row shall be $150,000. 23
‘‘(E) E
XCEPTION FOR CERTAIN STU -24
DENTS.— 25
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‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The provisions list-1
ed in clause (ii) shall not apply with re-2
spect to any individual who, as of June 30, 3
2025, is enrolled in a program of study at 4
an institution of higher education, and has 5
received a loan (or on whose behalf a loan 6
was made) under this part for such pro-7
gram, during the individual’s expected time 8
to completion of such program, as deter-9
mined by calculating by the difference be-10
tween— 11
‘‘(I) the program length for the 12
program of study in which such indi-13
vidual is enrolled; and 14
‘‘(II) the period of such program 15
that such individual has completed, 16
except that such expected time to completion 17
may not exceed 3 years. 18
‘‘(ii) P
ROVISIONS.—An individual de-19
scribed in clause (i) shall not be subject to 20
subparagraphs (C) and (D) of this para-21
graph, or paragraph (4) or (6).’’. 22
(2) A
NNUAL LIMITS FOR UNDERGRADUATE BOR -23
ROWERS.—Section 455(a) (20 U.S.C. 1087e(a)) is 24
further amended by adding at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(4) ANNUAL AND AGGREGATE LOAN LIMITS FOR 1
UNDERGRADUATE AND ALL BORROWERS .— 2
‘‘(A) U
NDERGRADUATE STUDENTS .— 3
‘‘(i) A
NNUAL LOAN LIMITS.— 4
‘‘(I) S
UBSIDIZED LOANS.—Not-5
withstanding any provision of this 6
part or part B, for any period of in-7
struction beginning on or after July 1, 8
2025, the maximum annual amount of 9
Federal Direct Stafford loans that an 10
undergraduate student may borrow in 11
any academic year (as defined in sec-12
tion 481(a)(2)) or its equivalent shall 13
be the difference between— 14
‘‘(aa) the median cost of col-15
lege (as defined in section 472A) 16
of the program of study in which 17
the student is enrolled; and 18
‘‘(bb) the Federal Pell Grant 19
under section 401 awarded to the 20
student for such academic year, 21
except that (1) the amount of such Fed-22
eral Direct Stafford loans awarded to 23
the student for such academic year 24
may not exceed the maximum annual 25
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limit described in section 428(b)(1) 1
that is applicable to such student; and 2
(2) the sum of such Federal Direct 3
Stafford Loans and the amount of such 4
Federal Pell Grant and other financial 5
assistance (as defined in section 6
480(i)) that the student receives for 7
such academic year may not exceed the 8
cost of attendance of such student. 9
‘‘(II) U
NSUBSIDIZED LOANS .— 10
Notwithstanding any provision of this 11
part or part B, for any period of in-12
struction beginning on or after July 1, 13
2025, the maximum annual amount of 14
Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford 15
loans that an undergraduate student 16
may borrow in any academic year (as 17
defined in section 481(a)(2)) or its 18
equivalent shall be the difference be-19
tween— 20
‘‘(aa) the median cost of col-21
lege (as defined in section 472A) 22
of the program of study in which 23
the student is enrolled; and 24
‘‘(bb) the sum of— 25
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‘‘(AA) the amount of 1
Federal Direct Stafford loans 2
awarded to such student for 3
such academic year; and 4
‘‘(BB) the amount of the 5
Federal Pell Grant under 6
section 401 awarded to the 7
student for such academic 8
year, 9
except that the sum of all Federal 10
financial aid under this title and 11
other financial assistance (as de-12
fined in section 480(i)) that such 13
student receives for such academic 14
year may not exceed the cost of 15
attendance for such student. 16
‘‘(ii) A
GGREGATE LIMITS.—Notwith-17
standing any provision of this part or part 18
B, for any period of instruction beginning 19
on or after July 1, 2025, with respect to an 20
undergraduate student— 21
‘‘(I) the maximum aggregate 22
amount of Federal Direct Stafford 23
loans and Federal Direct Unsubsidized 24
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Stafford loans that may be borrowed 1
shall be $50,000; 2
‘‘(II) the maximum aggregate 3
amount of Federal Direct Stafford 4
loans that may be borrowed shall be 5
$23,000; and 6
‘‘(III) the maximum aggregate 7
amount of Federal Direct Unsubsidized 8
Stafford loans that may be borrowed 9
shall be $50,000. 10
‘‘(B) S
TUDENTS IN A QUALIFYING UNDER -11
GRADUATE PROGRAM .— 12
‘‘(i) A
GGREGATE LIMITS .—Notwith-13
standing the aggregate limits described in 14
subparagraph (A)(ii), a student enrolled in 15
a qualifying undergraduate program shall 16
be subject to the aggregate limits for profes-17
sional students described in paragraph 18
(3)(D)(ii). 19
‘‘(ii) Q
UALIFYING UNDERGRADUATE 20
PROGRAM DEFINED.—For purposes of this 21
subparagraph, the term ‘qualifying under-22
graduate program’ means a program of 23
study— 24
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‘‘(I) for which the total tuition 1
and fees (including the required costs 2
described in section 124(b)(3)(A)(i)(I)) 3
exceeds the aggregate limits for under-4
graduate students described in sub-5
paragraph (A)(ii); 6
‘‘(II) that meets certification re-7
quirements of the Federal agency that 8
directly regulates the program and 9
provides final licensing and credentials 10
to students upon completion; and 11
‘‘(III) the institution of higher 12
education offering such program of 13
study notifies the Secretary that the 14
program desires to be a qualifying un-15
dergraduate program. 16
‘‘(C) A
LL STUDENTS.—The maximum ag-17
gregate amount of loans made, insured, or guar-18
anteed under this title to a student shall be 19
$200,000.’’. 20
(3) I
NSTITUTIONALLY DETERMINED LIMITS .— 21
Section 455(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 22
(20 U.S.C. 1087e(a)) is further amended by adding at 23
the end the following: 24
‘‘(5) I
NSTITUTIONALLY DETERMINED LIMITS .— 25
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 1
other provision of this subsection, an eligible in-2
stitution (at the discretion of a financial aid ad-3
ministrator at the institution) may prorate or 4
limit the amount of a loan any student who is 5
enrolled in a program of study for a period of 6
instruction beginning on or after July 1, 2024, 7
at that institution, may borrow under this part 8
for an academic year— 9
‘‘(i) if the institution can reasonably 10
demonstrate that outstanding amounts owed 11
of loans made under this title are or would 12
be excessive for students who complete such 13
program, based on the most recently avail-14
able data from the College Scorecard (or 15
successor website of the Department) on— 16
‘‘(I) the median of the value- 17
added earnings of students who com-18
plete such program; and 19
‘‘(II) the median debt owed, and 20
the repayment rate, on loans made 21
under this part, of such students; 22
‘‘(ii) in a case in which the student is 23
enrolled on a less than full-time basis or the 24
student is enrolled for less than the period 25
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of enrollment to which the annual loan 1
limit applies under this subsection, based 2
on the student’s enrollment status; or 3
‘‘(iii) based on the year of the program 4
for which the student is seeking such loan. 5
‘‘(B) A
PPLICATION TO ALL STUDENTS .— 6
Any proration or limiting of loan amounts 7
under subparagraph (A) shall be applied in the 8
same manner to all students enrolled in a pro-9
gram of study. 10
‘‘(C) I
NCREASES FOR INDIVIDUAL STU -11
DENTS.—Upon the request of a student whose 12
loan amount for an academic year has been pro-13
rated or limited under subparagraph (A), an eli-14
gible institution (at the discretion of the finan-15
cial aid administrator at the institution) may 16
increase such loan amount to an amount not ex-17
ceeding the annual loan amount applicable to 18
such student under this paragraph for such aca-19
demic year.’’. 20
(b) T
ERMINATION OFAUTHORITY TOMAKEFEDERAL 21
D
IRECTPLUSLOANS TOANYSTUDENT ORPARENTBOR-22
ROWER.—Section 455(a) of the Higher Education Act of 23
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(a)) is amended by adding at the 24
end the following: 25
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‘‘(6) TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY TO MAKE 1
FEDERAL DIRECT PLUS LOANS .—Notwithstanding 2
any provision of this part or part B, except as pro-3
vided in paragraph (3)(E), for any period of instruc-4
tion beginning on or after July 1, 2025, no Federal 5
Direct PLUS loans may be made to any parent bor-6
rower or graduate or professional student borrower.’’. 7
SEC. 222. LOAN REPAYMENT. 8
(a) R
EPAYMENTPLANS.—Section 455(d) of the Higher 9
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(d)) is amended— 10
(1) in paragraph (1)(D) by inserting ‘‘(includ-11
ing a repayment assistance plan under section 12
455(e)(9))’’ after ‘‘an income contingent repayment 13
plan’’; and 14
(2) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(6) R
EPAYMENT PLANS FOR LOANS MADE ON OR 16
AFTER JULY 1, 2024.— 17
‘‘(A) D
ESIGN AND SELECTION .—Notwith-18
standing paragraph (1), beginning on July 1, 19
2024, the Secretary shall offer a borrower of a 20
loan made under this part on or after July 1, 21
2024, two plans for repayment of such loan, in-22
cluding principal and interest on the loan. The 23
borrower shall be entitled to accelerate, without 24
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penalty, repayment on such loans. The borrower 1
may choose— 2
‘‘(i) a standard repayment plan with a 3
fixed monthly repayment amount paid over 4
a fixed period of time, not to exceed 10 5
years; or 6
‘‘(ii) a repayment assistance plan 7
under section 455(e)(9). 8
‘‘(B) S
ELECTION BY SECRETARY .—If such 9
borrower does not select a repayment plan de-10
scribed in subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall 11
provide the borrower with the repayment plan 12
described in subparagraph (A)(i). 13
‘‘(C) C
HANGES IN SELECTION.— 14
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to clause 15
(ii), a borrower may change the borrower’s 16
selection of a repayment plan under sub-17
paragraph (A), or the Secretary’s selection 18
of a plan for the borrower under subpara-19
graph (B), as the case may be. Nothing in 20
this subsection shall prohibit the Secretary 21
from encouraging distressed borrowers from 22
enrolling in the repayment assistance plan 23
under section 455(e)(9). 24
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‘‘(ii) SAME REPAYMENT PLAN RE -1
QUIRED.—All loans made under this part 2
on or after July 1, 2024, to a borrower shall 3
be repaid under the same repayment plan 4
under subparagraph (A), except that the 5
borrower may repay an excepted PLUS 6
loan or an excepted consolidation loan (as 7
such terms are defined in section 455(e)(9)) 8
separately from other loans made under this 9
part to the borrower. 10
‘‘(D) R
EPAYMENT AFTER DEFAULT .—The 11
Secretary may require a borrower who has de-12
faulted on a loan made under this part to— 13
‘‘(i) pay all reasonable collection costs 14
associated with such loan; and 15
‘‘(ii) repay the loan pursuant to the re-16
payment assistance plan under section 17
455(e)(9). 18
‘‘(E) P
ROHIBITIONS.—The Secretary may 19
not— 20
‘‘(i) authorize a borrower of a loan 21
made under this part on or after July 1, 22
2024, to repay such loan pursuant to a re-23
payment plan that is not described in 24
clause (i) or (ii) of subparagraph (A); or 25
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‘‘(ii) carry out or modify a repayment 1
plan for any loan made under this part on 2
or after July 1, 2024, that is not described 3
in such clause (i) or (ii).’’. 4
(b) R
EPAYMENTASSISTANCEPLAN.—Section 455(e) of 5
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(e)) is 6
amended by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(9) R
EPAYMENT ASSISTANCE PLAN .— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 9
other provision of this Act, beginning on July 1, 10
2024, the Secretary shall carry out a repayment 11
assistance program that shall have the terms and 12
conditions of an income-contingent repayment 13
plan described in paragraphs (1) through (8), 14
except that— 15
‘‘(i) a borrower of any loan made 16
under this part (other than an excepted 17
PLUS loan or excepted consolidation loan), 18
may elect to have the borrower’s aggregate 19
monthly payment for all such loans not ex-20
ceed the applicable monthly payment for the 21
borrower, except that a borrower may not be 22
precluded from repaying an amount that 23
exceeds such applicable monthly payment 24
for any month; 25
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‘‘(ii) the Secretary shall apply the bor-1
rower’s monthly payment under this para-2
graph first toward interest due on such a 3
loan, next toward any fees due on the loan, 4
and then toward the principal of the loan; 5
‘‘(iii) any principal due and not paid 6
under clause (ii) shall be deferred; 7
‘‘(iv) the amount of time the borrower 8
makes monthly payments under clause (i) 9
may exceed 10 years; 10
‘‘(v) notwithstanding paragraph (7), 11
the Secretary shall repay or cancel any out-12
standing balance of principal and interest 13
due on all loans made under this part 14
(other than excepted PLUS loans or ex-15
cepted consolidation loans) to a borrower— 16
‘‘(I) who, at any time, elected to 17
participate in a repayment assistance 18
plan under clause (i); 19
‘‘(II) whose final monthly pay-20
ment for such loans prior to the loan 21
cancellation under this clause was 22
made under such repayment assistance 23
plan; and 24
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‘‘(III) who has repaid on such 1
loans (pursuant to a repayment assist-2
ance plan under clause (i), a standard 3
repayment plan under subsection 4
(d)(6)(A)(i), or a combination of any 5
such plan or any of the repayment 6
plans listed in clause (ii), (iii), (iv), or 7
(v) of paragraph (7)(B), or, in the case 8
of a consolidation loan, pursuant to a 9
repayment schedule described item 10
(aa)(BB) of this subclause) an amount 11
that is equal to— 12
‘‘(aa)(AA) the total amount 13
of principal and interest that the 14
borrower would have repaid under 15
a standard repayment plan under 16
paragraph (1)(A) or (6)(A)(i) of 17
subsection (d), based on a 10-year 18
repayment period, when the bor-19
rower entered repayment on such 20
loans; or 21
‘‘(BB) in the case of a Fed-22
eral Direct Consolidation Loan, 23
the total amount of principal and 24
interest that the borrower would 25
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have repaid under the repayment 1
schedule established for the loan 2
under section 428C(c)(2) on the 3
date on which such loan was 4
made; plus 5
‘‘(bb) an amount equal to the 6
amount of any unpaid interest 7
that has accrued, but was not in-8
cluded in the calculation of the 9
total amount of principal and in-10
terest that would have been repaid 11
under the standard repayment 12
plan or schedule described in item 13
(aa)— 14
‘‘(AA) during any 15
deferment period described in 16
clause (i) or (ii) of subsection 17
(f)(2)(A); or 18
‘‘(BB) during any for-19
bearance period while serving 20
in a medical or dental in-21
ternship or residency pro-22
gram as described in section 23
428(c)(3)(A)(i)(I); and 24
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‘‘(vi) a borrower who is repaying a 1
loan pursuant to a repayment assistance 2
plan under clause (i) may elect, at any 3
time, to terminate repayment pursuant to 4
such plan and repay such loan under the 5
standard repayment plan under subsection 6
(d)(6)(A)(i). 7
‘‘(B) R
EPAYMENT ASSISTANCE FOR DIS -8
TRESSED BORROWERS .— 9
‘‘(i) I
NTEREST SUBSIDY.—For each 10
month for which a borrower’s aggregate 11
monthly payment under this paragraph is 12
insufficient to pay the total amount of in-13
terest that accrues on a loan for the month, 14
the amount of interest accrued and not paid 15
for the month shall be subtracted from the 16
total amount of interest due on such loan 17
for the month. 18
‘‘(ii) P
RINCIPAL SUBSIDY.—For each 19
month for which a borrower’s aggregate 20
monthly payment under this paragraph re-21
pays an amount due on an individual loan 22
that is less than twice the total amount of 23
interest that accrues on such loan for the 24
month, the amount of the total principal 25
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due on such loan shall be reduced by an 1
amount equal to half of the monthly pay-2
ment under this paragraph on such loan for 3
the month. 4
‘‘(C) D
EFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 5
‘‘(i) A
DJUSTED GROSS INCOME .—The 6
term ‘adjusted gross income’ has the mean-7
ing given the term in section 62 of the In-8
ternal Revenue Code of 1986. 9
‘‘(ii) A
PPLICABLE MONTHLY PAY -10
MENT.—The term ‘applicable monthly pay-11
ment’ means, when used with respect to a 12
borrower, the amount obtained by dividing 13
by 12, 10 percent of the result obtained by 14
calculating, on at least an annual basis, the 15
amount by which— 16
‘‘(I) the adjusted gross income of 17
the borrower or, if the borrower is mar-18
ried and files a Federal income tax re-19
turn jointly with or separately from 20
the borrower’s spouse, the adjusted 21
gross income of the borrower and the 22
borrower’s spouse; exceeds 23
‘‘(II) 150 percent of the poverty 24
line applicable to the borrower’s family 25
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size as determined under section 673(2) 1
of the Community Services Block 2
Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)). 3
‘‘(iii) E
XCEPTED CONSOLIDATION 4
LOAN.—The term ‘excepted Consolidation 5
Loan’ means a Federal Direct Consolida-6
tion Loan, if the proceeds of such loan were 7
used to the discharge the liability on— 8
‘‘(I) an excepted PLUS loan; or 9
‘‘(II) a Federal Direct Consolida-10
tion loan, if the proceeds of such loan 11
were used to discharge the liability on 12
an excepted PLUS loan. 13
‘‘(iv) E
XCEPTED PLUS LOAN .—The 14
term ‘excepted PLUS Loan’ has the mean-15
ing given the term in section 493C.’’. 16
SEC. 223. LOAN REHABILITATION. 17
Section 428F(a)(5) of the Higher Education Act of 18
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1078–6(a)(5)) is amended by striking ‘‘one 19
time’’ and inserting ‘‘two times’’. 20
SEC. 224. INTEREST CAPITALIZATION. 21
(a) F
EDERALPLUSLOANS.—Section 428B(d)(2) of 22
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1078–2(d)(2)) 23
is amended to read as follows: 24
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‘‘(2) NO CAPITALIZATION OF INTEREST.—Interest 1
on loans made under this section for which payments 2
of principal are deferred pursuant to paragraph (1) 3
shall be paid monthly or quarterly, if agreed upon by 4
the borrower and the lender.’’. 5
(b) F
EDERALCONSOLIDATIONLOANSDEFERRALS.— 6
Section 428C(b)(4)(C)(ii)(III) of the Higher Education Act 7
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1078–3(b)(4)(C)(III)) is amended by 8
striking ‘‘or capitalized,’’. 9
(c) L
OANLIMITS FORUNSUBSIDIZEDSTAFFORD 10
L
OANS.—Section 428H(d)(5) of the Higher Education Act 11
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1078–8(d)(5)) is amended by inserting 12
‘‘before the date of enactment of the College Cost Reduction 13
Act’’ after ‘‘Interest capitalized’’. 14
(d) U
NSUBSIDIZEDSTAFFORDLOANS FORMIDDLEIN-15
COMEBORROWERS.—Section 428H(e)(2) of the Higher 16
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1078–8(e)(2)) is amend-17
ed— 18
(1) in subparagraph (A), in the matter before 19
clause (i), by striking ‘‘, if agreed upon by the bor-20
rower and the lender’’ and all that follows through 21
clause (ii)(IV) and inserting ‘‘be paid monthly or 22
quarterly, if agreed upon by the borrower and the 23
lender.’’; 24
(2) by striking subparagraph (B); and 25
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(3) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as sub-1
paragraph (B). 2
(e) I
NCOMECONTINGENT REPAYMENT.—Section 3
455(e)(5) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 4
1087e(e)(5)) is amended by striking the last sentence and 5
inserting ‘‘No interest may be capitalized on such loan on 6
or after the date of the enactment of the College Cost Reduc-7
tion Act, and the Secretary shall promulgate regulations 8
with respect to the treatment of accrued interest that is not 9
capitalized’’. 10
(f) E
FFECT OFDEFERMENT ONPRINCIPAL ANDINTER-11
EST.—Section 455(f)(1)(B) of the Higher Education Act of 12
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(f)(1)(B)) is amended by striking 13
‘‘capitalized or’’. 14
(g) I
NCOME-BASEDREPAYMENTPROGRAM.—Section 15
493C(b)(3)(B) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 16
U.S.C. 1098e(b)(3)(B)) is amended by inserting ‘‘shall ac-17
crue but not’’ before ‘‘be capitalized’’. 18
SEC. 225. ORIGINATION FEES. 19
(a) R
EPEAL OFORIGINATIONFEES.—Subsection (c) 20
of section 455 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 21
U.S.C. 1087e(c)) is repealed. 22
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by sub-23
section (a) shall apply with respect to loans made under 24
part D of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 25
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U.S.C. 1087a et seq.) for which the first disbursement of 1
principal is made, or, in the case of a Federal Direct Con-2
solidation Loan, the application is received, on or after 3
July 1, 2024. 4
TITLE III—ACCOUNTABILITY 5
AND STUDENT SUCCESS 6
PART A—ACCOUNTABILITY 7
Subpart 1—Department of Education 8
SEC. 301. AGREEMENTS WITH INSTITUTIONS. 9
Section 454 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 10
U.S.C. 1087d) is amended— 11
(1) in subsection (a)— 12
(A) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘and’’ 13
after the semicolon; 14
(B) by redesignating paragraph (6) as 15
paragraph (7); and 16
(C) by inserting after paragraph (5) the fol-17
lowing new paragraph: 18
‘‘(6) provide annual reimbursements to the Sec-19
retary in accordance with the requirements under 20
subsection (d); and’’; and 21
(2) by adding at the end the following new sub-22
section: 23
‘‘(d) R
EIMBURSEMENTREQUIREMENTS.— 24
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‘‘(1) ANNUAL REIMBURSEMENTS REQUIRED .— 1
Beginning in award year 2024–2025, each institution 2
of higher education participating in the direct student 3
loan program under this part shall, for qualifying 4
student loans, remit to the Secretary, at such time as 5
the Secretary may specify, an annual reimbursement 6
for each student cohort of the institution, based on the 7
non-repayment balance of such cohort and calculated 8
in accordance with paragraph (3). 9
‘‘(2) S
TUDENT COHORTS.— 10
‘‘(A) C
OHORTS ESTABLISHED .—For each 11
institution of higher education, the Secretary 12
shall establish student cohorts, beginning with 13
award year 2023–2024, as follows: 14
‘‘(i) C
OMPLETING STUDENT COHORT .— 15
For each program of study at such institu-16
tion, a student cohort comprised of all stu-17
dents who received Federal financial assist-18
ance under this title and who completed 19
such program during such award year. 20
‘‘(ii) U
NDERGRADUATE NON -COM-21
PLETING STUDENT COHORT .—For such in-22
stitution, a student cohort comprised of all 23
students who received Federal financial as-24
sistance under this title, who were enrolled 25
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in the institution during the previous 1
award year in a program of study leading 2
to an undergraduate credential, and who at 3
the time the cohort is established— 4
‘‘(I) have not completed such pro-5
gram of study; and 6
‘‘(II) are not enrolled at the insti-7
tution in any program of study lead-8
ing to an undergraduate credential. 9
‘‘(iii) G
RADUATE NON -COMPLETING 10
STUDENT COHORT.—For each program of 11
study leading to a graduate credential at 12
such institution, a student cohort comprised 13
of all students who received Federal finan-14
cial assistance under this title, who were en-15
rolled in such program during the previous 16
award year, and who at the time the cohort 17
is established— 18
‘‘(I) have not completed such pro-19
gram of study; and 20
‘‘(II) are not enrolled in such pro-21
gram. 22
‘‘(B) Q
UALIFYING STUDENT LOAN .—For the 23
purposes of this subsection, the term ‘qualifying 24
student loan’ means a Federal Direct loan, in-25
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cluding a Federal Direct Consolidation loan, 1
made under this part that— 2
‘‘(i) was made to a student included in 3
a student cohort of an institution; 4
‘‘(ii) except in the case of a loan de-5
scribed in clause (i) or (ii) of subparagraph 6
(C), is not included in any other student co-7
hort of any institution of higher education; 8
‘‘(iii) is not in— 9
‘‘(I) a medical or dental intern-10
ship or residency forbearance described 11
in section 428(c)(3)(A)(i)(I), section 12
428B(a)(2), section 428H(a), or section 13
685.205(a)(3) of title 34, Code of Fed-14
eral Regulations; 15
‘‘(II) a graduate fellowship 16
deferment described in section 17
455(f)(2)(A)(ii) 18
‘‘(III) rehabilitation training pro-19
gram deferment described under section 20
455(f)(2)(A)(ii); 21
‘‘(IV) an in-school deferment de-22
scribed under section 455(f)(2)(A)(i); 23
‘‘(V) a cancer deferment described 24
under section 455(f)(3); 25
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‘‘(VI) a military service deferment 1
described under section 455(f)(2)(C); or 2
‘‘(VII) a post-active duty student 3
deferment described under section 4
493D; and 5
‘‘(iv) is not in default. 6
‘‘(C) S
PECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES.— 7
‘‘(i) M
ULTIPLE CREDENTIALS.—In the 8
case of a student who completes two or more 9
programs of study during the same award 10
year, each qualifying student loan of the 11
student shall be included in the student co-12
hort for each of such program of study for 13
such award year. 14
‘‘(ii) T
REATMENT OF CERTAIN CON -15
SOLIDATION LOANS.—A Federal Direct Con-16
solidation loan made under this title shall 17
not be considered a qualifying student loan 18
for a student cohort for an award year if all 19
of the loans included in such consolidation 20
loan are attributable to another student co-21
hort. 22
‘‘(iii) C
ONSOLIDATION AFTER INCLU -23
SION IN A STUDENT COHORT .—If a quali-24
fying student loan is consolidated into a 25
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consolidation loan under this title after such 1
qualifying student loan has been included 2
in a student cohort, the percentage of the 3
consolidation loan that was attributable to 4
such student cohort at the time of consolida-5
tion shall remain attributable to the student 6
cohort for the life of the consolidation loan. 7
‘‘(3) C
ALCULATION OF REIMBURSEMENT .— 8
‘‘(A) R
EIMBURSEMENT PAYMENT FOR -9
MULA.—For each student cohort of an institution 10
of higher education established under this sub-11
section, the annual reimbursement for such co-12
hort shall be equal to— 13
‘‘(i) the reimbursement percentage de-14
termined for the cohort in accordance with 15
subparagraph (B); multiplied by 16
‘‘(ii) the non-repayment balance for the 17
cohort for the award year, determined in 18
accordance with subparagraph (C). 19
‘‘(B) R
EIMBURSEMENT PERCENTAGE .—The 20
reimbursement percentage of a student cohort of 21
an institution shall be determined by the Sec-22
retary when the cohort is established, shall re-23
main constant for the life of the student cohort, 24
and shall be determined as follows: 25
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‘‘(i) COMPLETING STUDENT CO -1
HORTS.—The reimbursement percentage of 2
a completing student cohort shall be equal 3
to the percentage determined by— 4
‘‘(I) subtracting from one the 5
quotient of— 6
‘‘(aa) the median value- 7
added earnings of students who 8
completed such program of study 9
in the most recent award year for 10
which such earnings data is avail-11
able; divided by 12
‘‘(bb) the median total price 13
charged to students included in 14
such cohort; and 15
‘‘(II) multiplying the difference 16
determined under subclause (I) by 100. 17
‘‘(ii) S
PECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES FOR 18
COMPLETING STUDENT COHORTS .— 19
‘‘(I) H
IGH-RISK COHORTS.—Not-20
withstanding clause (i), if the median 21
value-added earnings of a completing 22
student cohort under clause (i)(I)(aa) 23
is negative, the reimbursement percent-24
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age of the student cohort shall be 100 1
percent. 2
‘‘(II) L
OW-RISK COHORTS.—Not-3
withstanding clause (i), if the median 4
value-added earnings of a completing 5
student cohort under clause (i)(I)(aa) 6
exceeds the median total price of such 7
cohort under clause (i)(I)(bb), the re-8
imbursement percentage of the student 9
cohort shall be 0 percent. 10
‘‘(iii) N
ON-COMPLETING STUDENT CO -11
HORTS.—The reimbursement percentage of 12
a non-completing student cohort shall be de-13
termined based on the most recent data 14
available in the award year in which the 15
cohort is established, and— 16
‘‘(I) for an undergraduate non- 17
completing student cohort, shall be 18
equal to the percentage of under-19
graduate students who received Federal 20
financial assistance under this title at 21
such institution who— 22
‘‘(aa) did not complete an 23
undergraduate program of study 24
at the institution within 150 per-25
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cent of the program length of such 1
program; or 2
‘‘(bb) only in the case of a 3
two-year institution, did not, 4
within 6 years after first enrolling 5
at the two-year institution, com-6
plete a program of study at a 7
four-year institution for which a 8
bachelor’s degree (or substantially 9
similar credential) is awarded; 10
and 11
‘‘(II) for a graduate non-com-12
pleting student cohort, shall be equal to 13
the percentage of students who received 14
Federal financial assistance under this 15
title at the institution for the applica-16
ble graduate program of study and 17
who did not complete such program of 18
study within 150 percent of the pro-19
gram length. 20
‘‘(C) N
ON-REPAYMENT LOAN BALANCE .— 21
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—For each award 22
year, the Secretary shall determine the non- 23
repayment loan balance for such award 24
year for each student cohort of an institu-25
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tion of higher education by calculating the 1
sum of— 2
‘‘(I) for loans in such cohort, the 3
difference between the total amount of 4
payments due from all borrowers on 5
such loans during such year and the 6
total amount of payments made by all 7
such borrowers on such loans during 8
such year; plus 9
‘‘(II) the total amount of interest 10
waived, paid, or otherwise not charged 11
by the Secretary during such year 12
under an income-based repayment 13
plan described in section 493C or an 14
income-contingent repayment plan de-15
scribed in section 455(e); plus 16
‘‘(III) the total amount of prin-17
cipal and interest forgiven, cancelled, 18
waived, discharged, repaid, or other-19
wise reduced by the Secretary under 20
any act during such year that is not 21
included in subclause (II) and was not 22
discharged or forgiven under section 23
437(a) or 428J. 24
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‘‘(ii) SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES .—For 1
the purpose of calculating the non-repay-2
ment loan balance of student cohorts under 3
this paragraph, the Secretary shall— 4
‘‘(I) for each qualifying student 5
loan in a student cohort that is in-6
cluded in another student cohort be-7
cause the student who borrowed such 8
loan completed two or more programs 9
of study during the same award year, 10
the sum of the amounts described in 11
subclauses (I) through (III) of clause 12
(i) for such qualifying student loan 13
shall be divided equally among each of 14
the student cohorts in which such loan 15
is included; and 16
‘‘(II) for each consolidation loan 17
in a student cohort— 18
‘‘(aa) determine the percent-19
age of the outstanding principal 20
balance of the consolidation loan 21
attributable to such student co-22
hort— 23
‘‘(AA) at the time of 24
that loan was included in 25
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such cohort, in the case of a 1
loan consolidated before in-2
clusion in such cohort; or 3
‘‘(BB) at the time of 4
consolidation, in the case of 5
a loan consolidated after in-6
clusion in such cohort; and 7
‘‘(bb) include in the calcula-8
tions under clause (i) for such stu-9
dent cohort only the percentage of 10
the sum of the amounts described 11
in subclauses (I) through (III) of 12
clause (i) for the consolidation 13
loan for such year that is equal to 14
the percentage of the consolidation 15
loan determined under item (aa). 16
‘‘(D) T
OTAL PRICE.—With respect to a stu-17
dent who received Federal financial assistance 18
under this title and who completes a program of 19
study, the term ‘total price’ means the total 20
amount, before Federal financial assistance 21
under this title was applied, a student was re-22
quired to pay to complete the program of study. 23
A student’s total price shall be calculated by the 24
Secretary as the difference between— 25
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‘‘(i) the total amount of tuition and 1
fees (including the required costs described 2
in section 124(b)(3)(A)(i)(I)) that were 3
charged to such student before the applica-4
tion of any Federal financial assistance 5
provided under this title; minus 6
‘‘(ii) the total amount of grants and 7
scholarships described in section 480(i) 8
awarded to such student from non-Federal 9
sources for such program of study. 10
‘‘(4) N
OTIFICATION AND REMITTANCE .—Begin-11
ning with the first award year for which reimburse-12
ments are required under this subsection, and for each 13
succeeding award year, the Secretary shall— 14
‘‘(A) notify each institution of higher edu-15
cation of the amounts and due dates of each an-16
nual reimbursement calculated under paragraph 17
(3) for each student cohort of the institution 18
within 30 days of calculating such amounts; and 19
‘‘(B) require the institution to remit such 20
payments within 90 days of such notification. 21
‘‘(5) P
ENALTY FOR LATE PAYMENTS .— 22
‘‘(A) T
HREE-MONTH DELINQUENCY .—If an 23
institution fails to remit to the Secretary a reim-24
bursement for a student cohort as required under 25
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this subsection within 90 days of receiving noti-1
fication from the Secretary in accordance with 2
paragraph (4), the institution shall pay to the 3
Secretary, in addition to such reimbursement, 4
interest on such reimbursement payment, at a 5
rate that is the average rate applicable to the 6
loans in such student cohort. 7
‘‘(B) T
WELVE-MONTH DELINQUENCY .—If an 8
institution fails to remit to the Secretary a reim-9
bursement for a student cohort as required under 10
this subsection, plus interest owed in under sub-11
paragraph (A), within 12 months of receiving 12
notification from the Secretary in accordance 13
with paragraph (4), the institution shall be in-14
eligible to make direct loans to any student en-15
rolled in the program of study for which the in-16
stitution has failed to make the reimbursement 17
payments until such payment is made. 18
‘‘(C) E
IGHTEEN-MONTH DELINQUENCY .—If 19
an institution fails to remit to the Secretary a 20
reimbursement for a student cohort as required 21
under this subsection, plus interest owed under 22
subparagraph (A), within 18 months of receiving 23
notification from the Secretary in accordance 24
with paragraph (4), the institution shall be in-25
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eligible to make direct loans or award Federal 1
Pell Grants under section 401 to any student en-2
rolled in the institution until such payment is 3
made. 4
‘‘(D) T
WO-YEAR DELINQUENCY.—If an in-5
stitution fails to remit to the Secretary a reim-6
bursement for a student cohort as required under 7
this subsection, plus interest owed under sub-8
paragraph (A), within 2 years of receiving noti-9
fication from the Secretary in accordance with 10
paragraph (4), the institution shall be ineligible 11
to participate in any program under this title 12
for a period of not less than 10 years. 13
‘‘(6) R
ELIEF FOR VOLUNTARY CESSATION OF 14
FEDERAL DIRECT LOANS FOR A PROGRAM OF 15
STUDY.—The Secretary shall, upon the request of an 16
institution that voluntarily ceases to make Federal 17
direct loans to students enrolled in a specific program 18
of study, reduce the amount of the annual reimburse-19
ment owed by the institution for each student cohort 20
associated with such program by 50 percent if the in-21
stitution assures the Secretary that the institution 22
will not make Federal direct loans to any student en-23
rolled in such program of study (or any substantially 24
similar program of study) for a period of not less 25
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than 10 award years, beginning with the first award 1
year that begins after the date on which the Secretary 2
reduces such reimbursement. 3
‘‘(7) R
ESERVATION OF FUNDS FOR PROMISE 4
GRANTS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 5
law, the Secretary shall reserve the funds remitted to 6
the Secretary as reimbursements in accordance with 7
this subsection, and such funds shall be made avail-8
able to the Secretary only for the purpose of awarding 9
PROMISE grants in accordance with subpart 4 of 10
part A of this title.’’. 11
SEC. 302. REGULATORY RELIEF. 12
(a) 90/10.— 13
(1) R
EGULATION REPEALED .—Section 668.28 of 14
title 34, Code of Federal Regulations (relating to the 15
90/10 rule), as added or amended by the final regula-16
tions published by the Department of Education in 17
the Federal Register on October 28, 2022 (87 Fed. 18
Reg. 65426 et seq.), is repealed and will have no force 19
or effect. 20
(2) A
MENDMENTS.—Section 487 of the Higher 21
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094) is amend-22
ed— 23
(A) in subsection (a), by striking paragraph 24
(24); 25
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(B) by striking subsection (d); and 1
(C) by redesignating subsections (e) through 2
(j) as subsections (d) through (i), respectively. 3
(b) F
INANCIALVALUETRANSPARENCY AND GAINFUL 4
E
MPLOYMENT.— 5
(1) R
EGULATION REPEALED .—Sections 600.10, 6
600.21, 668.2, 668.13, 668.43, 668.91, 668.402 7
through 668.409 (excluding section 668.408), and 8
668.601 through 668.606 of title 34, Code of Federal 9
Regulations (relating to financial value transparency 10
and gainful employment), as added or amended by 11
the final regulations published by the Department of 12
Education in the Federal Register on October 10, 13
2023 (88 FR 70004 et seq.), are repealed and will 14
have no force or effect. 15
(2) P
ROHIBITION.—The Secretary of Education 16
shall not, on or after the date of enactment of this 17
Act, promulgate or enforce any regulation or rule 18
with respect to the definition or application of the 19
term ‘‘gainful employment’’ for any purpose under 20
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et 21
seq.). 22
(c) C
HANGES INOWNERSHIP.— 23
(1) R
EGULATION REPEALED .—Sections 600.2, 24
600.4, 600.20, 600.21, and 600.31 of title 34, Code of 25
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Federal Regulations (relating to changes in owner-1
ship), as added or amended by the final regulations 2
published by the Department of Education in the 3
Federal Register on October 28, 2022 (87 Fed. Reg. 4
65426 et seq.), are repealed and will have no force or 5
effect. 6
(2) A
MENDMENTS.—Section 498(i) of the Higher 7
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099c(i)) is 8
amended— 9
(A) in the subsection heading, by inserting 10
‘‘
ANDPROPOSEDCHANGES OF OWNERSHIP’’ 11
after ‘‘O
WNERSHIP’’; 12
(B) in paragraph (1)— 13
(i) by striking ‘‘(1) An eligible institu-14
tion’’, and inserting the following: ‘‘(1)(A) 15
An eligible institution’’; 16
(ii) by striking ‘‘the requirements of 17
section 102 (other than the requirements in 18
subsections (b)(5) and (c)(3))’’ and insert-19
ing ‘‘the applicable requirements of section 20
102 or 103(13)’’ 21
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-22
lowing: 23
‘‘(B)(i) Prior to a change in ownership resulting in 24
a change of control, an institution may seek a 25
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pretransaction determination about whether the institution 1
will meet the applicable requirements of section 102 or 2
103(13) and this section after such proposed change in own-3
ership by submitting to the Secretary a materially complete 4
pretransaction review application. 5
‘‘(ii) In reviewing applications submitted under clause 6
(i), the Secretary shall only provide a comprehensive review 7
of each such application, and may not provide an abbre-8
viated or partial review. 9
‘‘(iii) If an institution submits a materially complete 10
pretransaction review application at least 90 days prior to 11
the transaction and the Secretary approves the application, 12
the subsequent change in ownership application shall also 13
be approved and the institution shall be certified as meeting 14
the requirements for such transaction, provided that the in-15
stitution— 16
‘‘(I) complies with the applicable terms of this 17
section; and 18
‘‘(II) the transaction resulting in a change of 19
control does not differ materially in its terms from 20
the transaction proposed in the pretransaction review 21
application.’’; 22
(C) in paragraph (2)— 23
(i) in subparagraph (E), by striking 24
‘‘or’’ at the end; 25
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(ii) in subparagraph (F), by striking 1
the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; 2
and 3
(iii) by adding the following at the 4
end: 5
‘‘(G) in the case of a proprietary institution of 6
higher education, a conversion to a public or other 7
nonprofit institution of higher education.’’; 8
(D) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(5)(A) Subject to subparagraph (B), when any insti-10
tution submits an application for a change in ownership 11
resulting in a change in control under this section or sub-12
mits a pretransaction review application under paragraph 13
(1)(B) (other than in the case of a conversion transaction), 14
the institution shall be required to pay to the Secretary an 15
administrative fee that shall— 16
‘‘(i) be in an amount equal to 0.15 percent of the 17
total institutional revenue derived from this title by 18
such institution for the most fiscal year for which 19
data is available; and 20
‘‘(ii) be used exclusively for expenses related to 21
the processing of such application, and be available to 22
the Secretary without further appropriation, exclu-23
sively for expenses related to the processing of such 24
approval or application. 25
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‘‘(B) In the case of a proprietary institution submit-1
ting an application for conversion, or a pretransaction re-2
view application for conversion, the institution shall be re-3
quired to pay to the Secretary an administrative fee that 4
shall— 5
‘‘(i) be in an amount equal to 0.30 percent of the 6
total institutional revenue derived from this title by 7
such institution for the most fiscal year for which 8
data is available; and 9
‘‘(ii) be used exclusively for expenses related to 10
the processing of such application, and of which— 11
‘‘(I) 50 percent shall be available to the Sec-12
retary without further appropriation, exclusively 13
for expenses related to the processing of such ap-14
plication; and 15
‘‘(II) 50 percent shall be remitted by the 16
Secretary to the Commissioner of the Internal 17
Revenue, and shall be available, without further 18
appropriation, to the Commissioner of Internal 19
Revenue exclusively for purposes of determining 20
whether the institution seeking such conversion 21
or pretransaction review is an institution ex-22
empt from tax and is otherwise in compliance 23
with applicable requirements of the Internal 24
Revenue Code of 1986. 25
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‘‘(C) An institution that pays a fee under subpara-1
graph (A) or (B) for a pretransaction application with re-2
spect to a proposed transaction shall not be required to pay 3
another fee under such subparagraph for a change in owner-4
ship application with respect to such transaction. 5
‘‘(D) In no case may any fee remitted under subpara-6
graph (A) or (B) exceed $120,000 for any transaction (or 7
pretransaction) application, nor may the Secretary require 8
an institution that has paid a fee under subparagraph (B) 9
to pay an additional fee under subparagraph (A). 10
‘‘(6)(A) The Secretary shall approve or deny a materi-11
ally complete application (including pretransaction reviews 12
and conversion applications) submitted under this section 13
as soon as practicable and not later than the 90-day period 14
beginning on the date of receipt of such an application, ex-15
cept that in a case in which the Secretary determines, on 16
a nondelegable basis, that good cause exists to not make the 17
determination during such 90-day period, the Secretary 18
shall notify the institution in writing detailing the reasons 19
for a good cause extension. 20
‘‘(B) If the Secretary fails to approve or deny a mate-21
rially complete application during the period described in 22
subparagraph (A) and does not find good cause for exten-23
sion, the materially complete application shall be deemed 24
approved. 25
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‘‘(C) In no case may the Secretary grant a good cause 1
extension under this section to an institution for more than 2
one month at a time, or for a total of more than more than 3
12 months. 4
‘‘(D) To ensure timely submission of all relevant docu-5
mentation, the Secretary may deny an application if an 6
institution does not make a good faith effort to submit to 7
the Secretary, in a timely manner— 8
‘‘(i) all relevant documentation; or 9
‘‘(ii) a materially complete application. 10
‘‘(E)(i) Upon approving or denying an application 11
under this paragraph, the Secretary shall publish in the 12
Federal Register the reasoning for such approval or denial, 13
including— 14
‘‘(I) a copy of the approval or denial letter 15
sent to the institution; and 16
‘‘(II) any analysis regarding how the Sec-17
retary determined under paragraph 7(A)(iii) 18
that a director of the institution was an inter-19
ested or disinterested party to the transaction. 20
‘‘(ii) The Secretary shall not publish under clause (i) 21
any information that is otherwise exempt from disclosure 22
under section 552 of title 5, United States Code (relating 23
to the Freedom of Information Act), including trade secrets 24
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and commercial or financial information that is privileged 1
or confidential. 2
‘‘(7)(A) In the case of a proprietary institution that 3
subsequent to the transaction would be owned and operated 4
by an entity (in this paragraph referred to as the ‘buyer’) 5
seeking to be recognized as a public or other nonprofit insti-6
tution, the buyer shall meet the definition of a nonprofit 7
institution under section 103(13) if— 8
‘‘(i) the buyer pays no more than fair market 9
value for any assets of the proprietary institution; 10
‘‘(ii) the buyer pays no more than fair market 11
value for any service or lease contracts, including 12
such service and lease contracts provided by the entity 13
selling the proprietary institution; and 14
‘‘(iii) to prevent self-dealing in the case where 15
one or more individuals with a substantial ownership 16
or controlling interests in the proprietary institution 17
will also have substantial or controlling interests in 18
the institution seeking to be recognized as a public or 19
other nonprofit institution (meaning that one or more 20
individuals are on both sides of the transaction), the 21
change of control transaction, and any substantial 22
asset acquisition, service, or lease agreements with the 23
proprietary institution shall be approved by a disin-24
terested committee of directors of the entity that seeks 25
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to be recognized as a public or other nonprofit insti-1
tution. 2
‘‘(B) For the purposes of this paragraph, parties to 3
the transaction are entitled to a rebuttable presumption 4
that the assets, lease contracts, and service contracts that 5
are part of the transaction are purchased at fair market 6
value if— 7
‘‘(i) the acquiring entity pays no more than fair 8
market value for such assets, lease contracts, or service 9
contracts; and 10
‘‘(ii) the value of the assets, lease contracts, or 11
service contracts are evaluated by at least one inde-12
pendent third-party entity hired by parties on both 13
sides of the transaction. 14
‘‘(8)(A) An institution that has been approved for con-15
version by the Secretary shall be subject to a monitoring 16
period for a 5-year period beginning on the day after the 17
date of such approval. In conducting the monitoring of the 18
institution under this paragraph, the Secretary— 19
‘‘(i) shall only conduct monitoring to ensure that 20
the institution is in compliance with the requirements 21
of section 103(13) and paragraph (7) of this sub-22
section; and 23
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‘‘(ii) may require the institution to submit reg-1
ular reports or conduct audits of such institution re-2
lating to such compliance. 3
‘‘(B) Each institution that is subject to the monitoring 4
period under this paragraph shall remit an annual fee to 5
the Secretary— 6
‘‘(i) in an amount equal to 0.15 percent of the 7
total revenue derived from this title by such institu-8
tion for the most recent fiscal year for which data is 9
available; and 10
‘‘(ii) that shall be exclusively for expenses related 11
to monitoring of the institution for the period de-12
scribed in subparagraph (A)— 13
‘‘(I) of which 50 percent shall be used by the 14
Secretary, without further appropriation, exclu-15
sively for expenses related to monitoring of the 16
institution during such period; and 17
‘‘(II) of which 50 percent shall be remitted 18
by the Secretary to the Commissioner of Internal 19
Revenue, to be available to such Commissioner, 20
without further appropriation, exclusively for 21
monitoring compliance with the Internal Rev-22
enue Code of such institution during such period. 23
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‘‘(C) An institution may not be subject to an annual 1
fee under subparagraph (B) for monitoring related to a con-2
version that exceeds $60,000. 3
‘‘(D) If the Secretary determines that an institution 4
should be subject to the monitoring under this paragraph 5
beyond the 5-year period described in subparagraph (A), 6
the Secretary shall provide the reasons justifying an exten-7
sion in writing to the institution (and in the Federal Reg-8
ister) at least 30 days before the expiration of such period. 9
‘‘(E) Any institution that is subject to monitoring 10
under this paragraph may seek a waiver to be exempt from 11
such monitoring (including the annual fee under subpara-12
graph (B)) on an annual basis for any year during the 13
monitoring period and the Secretary shall grant such waiv-14
er if there is no ongoing contractual or financial relation-15
ship between the institution and the former entity or indi-16
viduals that previously owned the institution. The Sec-17
retary may grant a waiver for more than 1 year in the 18
case where the entity that formerly owned the proprietary 19
institution has closed or no longer exists and the Secretary 20
determines the institution is not at risk of violating the re-21
quirements of section 103(13) or paragraph (7) of this sub-22
section. 23
‘‘(9) Any institution that submits an application for 24
conversion shall not promote or market itself, in any man-25
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ner, as a public or other nonprofit institution of higher edu-1
cation unless— 2
‘‘(A) the Secretary has provided final approval 3
of the conversion of the institution to a public or 4
other nonprofit institution of higher education under 5
this section; 6
‘‘(B) an accrediting agency or association recog-7
nized by the Secretary pursuant to section 496 has 8
approved such public or nonprofit status of the insti-9
tution; 10
‘‘(C) the State has given final approval to the 11
institution as a public or nonprofit institution of 12
higher education, as applicable; and 13
‘‘(D) in the case of an institution seeking non-14
profit status, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue 15
has approved the institution as tax exempt pursuant 16
to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 17
‘‘(10) Not later than 270 days after the date of enact-18
ment of the College Cost Reduction Act, and periodically 19
thereafter, the Secretary shall publish (and update as nec-20
essary) in the Federal Register— 21
‘‘(A) descriptions of the documents and materials 22
the Secretary expects or requires institutions of higher 23
education to submit (including any standardized 24
forms) as part of any pretransaction application or 25
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change in ownership application under this section, 1
including a description of what the Secretary con-2
siders to be a materially complete application; and 3
‘‘(B) after at least a 30-day notice and comment 4
period, responses to any public comments received 5
with respect to such descriptions or updates to such 6
descriptions. 7
‘‘(11) In a case in which the Secretary requests a docu-8
ment under this section as part of a pretransaction or 9
change in ownership application that is not described in 10
the Federal Register under paragraph (10), the Secretary 11
shall— 12
‘‘(A) substantiate, in writing to the institution, 13
the reasons why the Secretary is requesting such docu-14
ments; and 15
‘‘(B) publish such reasons in the Federal Reg-16
ister, including whether the Secretary may request 17
other institutions that submit applications under this 18
section to produce similar documentation. 19
‘‘(12)(A) Not later than 18 months after the date of 20
enactment of the College Cost Reduction Act, and annually 21
thereafter, the Secretary shall submit a report to author-22
izing committees, and post such report on a publicly avail-23
able website regarding implementation of the amendments 24
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made to this section by such Act, including the following 1
information: 2
‘‘(i) The mean and median length of time taken 3
by the Secretary to review applications under this 4
section during the preceding 12-month period. 5
‘‘(ii) The number of applications approved or de-6
nied during the preceding 12-month period. 7
‘‘(iii) For any application not processed during 8
the 90-day period beginning on the date of receipt of 9
the application for which the Secretary found good 10
cause under paragraph (6)(A) to extend the deadline 11
in which the application shall be processed, a copy of 12
the letter sent to the institution explaining why the 13
Secretary believed good cause existed for such exten-14
sion. 15
‘‘(iv) For any application not processed during 16
such 90-day period, which was deemed to be auto-17
matically approved by the requirements of this section 18
under paragraph (6)(B), the name of each institution 19
involved and an explanation for why the application 20
was not processed in a timely manner. 21
‘‘(v) Any legislative suggestions the Secretary 22
may have to improve the application or monitoring 23
process under this section. 24
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‘‘(B) If the Secretary fails to submit a report under 1
this paragraph by not later than 90 days after the deadline 2
for such submission under subparagraph (A), the Secretary 3
may not, for the 12-month period following such failure, 4
spend the fees remitted by institutions under this section 5
or remit such fees to the Commissioner unless Congress pro-6
vides for such use by further appropriation. 7
‘‘(13) For the purposes of this subsection, the term 8
‘conversion’ means any transaction under which— 9
‘‘(A) a proprietary institution is reorganized 10
and seeks recognition as a public or other nonprofit 11
institution; or 12
‘‘(B) the control of a proprietary institution is 13
transferred as a result of a sale, donation, or other 14
method to an entity that seeks certification under this 15
section as a public or other nonprofit institution.’’. 16
(3) A
PPLICATION.—The amendments made by 17
this section shall be apply with respect to applica-18
tions submitted for change of control or conversion 19
submitted on or after January 1, 2023. 20
(4) R
EPORT.—Not later than 5 years after the 21
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 22
shall submit to the Committee on Education and 23
Labor of the House of Representatives and the Com-24
mittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of 25
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the Senate, a report on the implementation of the 1
amendments made by this subsection, including rec-2
ommendations to improve— 3
(A) the application process under section 4
498(i) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 5
U.S.C. 1099c(i)), as amended by paragraph (2), 6
for institutions of higher education seeking a 7
change in ownership resulting in a change in 8
control; or 9
(B) the monitoring process under such sec-10
tion for institutions of higher education that 11
have recently converted from being recognized as 12
a proprietary institution to a public or other 13
nonprofit institution. 14
(d) F
INANCIALRESPONSIBILITY.— 15
(1) R
EGULATION REPEALED .—Sections 668.15, 16
668.23, 668.171, and 668.174 through 668.177 of title 17
34, Code of Federal Regulations (relating to financial 18
responsibility), as added or amended by the final reg-19
ulations published by the Department of Education in 20
the Federal Register on October 31, 2023 (87 Fed. 21
Reg. 74568 et seq.) are repealed and will have no 22
force or effect. 23
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(2) AMENDMENTS.—Section 498(c) of the Higher 1
Education Act of 1965 (20 6 U.S.C. 1099c(c)) is 2
amended— 3
(A) by redesignating paragraphs (3), (4), 4
(5), and (6) as paragraphs (4), (5), (6), and (7), 5
respectively; 6
(B) in paragraph (2)— 7
(i) by striking ‘‘paragraph (1), if’’ and 8
inserting ‘‘paragraph (1), the Secretary 9
shall prescribe criteria regarding ratios that 10
aid in the determination financial responsi-11
bility. Such ratios shall be first issued in 12
draft form to the institution to allow for 13
adequate review, consisting of an appeals 14
process, by such institutions of higher edu-15
cation. If’’; and 16
(ii) by striking ‘‘prescribed by the Sec-17
retary regarding ratios’’ and inserting 18
‘‘prescribed by the Secretary regarding the 19
final ratios’’; 20
(C) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-21
lowing: 22
‘‘(3) Notwithstanding paragraph (2), the Secretary 23
shall take into account an institution’s current total finan-24
cial circumstances, including any subsequent change in the 25
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institution’s overall fiscal health based on the standards in 1
paragraph (2), when making a determination of its ability 2
to meet the standards herein required before any subsequent 3
action is taken under paragraph (4). If an institution meets 4
the standards in paragraph (2), the institution shall be seen 5
as financially responsible.’’; 6
(D) in subparagraph (C) of paragraph (4), 7
as so redesignated, by striking ‘‘establishes to the 8
satisfaction of the Secretary, with’’ and inserting 9
‘‘establishes, with’’; 10
(E) in paragraph (5), as so redesignated— 11
(i) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 12
‘‘and’’ after the semicolon at the end; 13
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 14
‘‘; and’’ and inserting a period; and 15
(iii) by striking subparagraph (C); 16
(F) in paragraph (6), as so redesignated, by 17
striking ‘‘(3)(C)’’ and inserting ‘‘(4)(C)’’; and 18
(G) by adding at the end the following new 19
paragraph: 20
‘‘(8) Not later than 18 months after the date of enact-21
ment of the College Cost Reduction Act, the Secretary shall 22
pursue a process to update the ratios regarding financial 23
responsibility as identified in paragraph (2). The Secretary 24
shall report the revised ratios to— 25
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‘‘(A) the Committee on Education and the Work-1
force of the House of Representatives; and 2
‘‘(B) the Committee on Health, Education, 3
Labor, and Pensions of the Senate.’’. 4
(e) I
NCENTIVECOMPENSATION; THIRDPARTY 5
S
ERVICER.— 6
(1) A
MENDMENTS.—Section 487(a)(20) (20 7
U.S.C. 1094(a)(20)) is amended to read as follows: 8
‘‘(20) The institution will not provide any com-9
mission, bonus, or other incentive payment based di-10
rectly or indirectly on success in securing enrollments 11
or financial aid to any persons or entities engaged in 12
any student recruiting or admission activities, or in 13
making decisions regarding the award of student fi-14
nancial assistance, except that this paragraph shall 15
not apply— 16
‘‘(A) to the recruitment of foreign students 17
residing in foreign countries who are not eligible 18
to receive Federal student assistance; or 19
‘‘(B) to a third party where— 20
‘‘(i) the third party is providing the 21
institution recruiting or admissions activi-22
ties as part of a larger bundle of services 23
not covered by this paragraph and which 24
may include marketing or advertising ac-25
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tivities that broadly disseminate or dis-1
tribute widely available information; 2
‘‘(ii) the third party does not provide 3
any commission, bonus, or other incentive- 4
based payments to its employees or sub-5
contractors who are providing services to 6
the institution covered in this paragraph; 7
and 8
‘‘(iii) the third party is not awarding 9
or disbursing Federal financial aid 10
awards.’’. 11
(2) D
EFINITION.—Section 481(c) (20 U.S.C. 12
1088(c)) is amended to read as follows: 13
‘‘(c) T
HIRDPARTYSERVICER.— 14
‘‘(1) For purposes of this title, the term ‘third 15
party servicer’— 16
‘‘(A) means any individual, any State, or 17
any private, for-profit or nonprofit organization, 18
which enters into a contract with— 19
‘‘(i) any eligible institution of higher 20
education to administer, through either 21
manual or automated processing, any as-22
pect of such institution’s student assistance 23
programs under this title; or 24
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‘‘(ii) any guaranty agency, or any eli-1
gible lender, to administer, through either 2
manual or automated processing, any as-3
pect of such guaranty agency’s or lender’s 4
student loan programs under part B of this 5
title, including originating, guaranteeing, 6
monitoring, processing, servicing, or col-7
lecting loans; and 8
‘‘(B) does not include any individual, any 9
State, or any private, for-profit or nonprofit or-10
ganization, which conducts activities or interacts 11
with prospective or enrolled students for the pur-12
poses of— 13
‘‘(i) marketing or recruiting, such as 14
soliciting potential enrollments through the 15
dissemination of information and adver-16
tising; 17
‘‘(ii) assisting with the completion of 18
applications for enrollment, such as screen-19
ing pre-enrollment information and offering 20
admission counseling; 21
‘‘(iii) administering ability-to-benefit 22
tests or establishing any aspect of an eligi-23
ble career pathway program; 24
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‘‘(iv) conducting activities for the re-1
tention of students, such as monitoring aca-2
demic engagement and conducting outreach 3
to student regarding attendance; and 4
‘‘(v) providing instructional content, 5
such as evaluating course completion, deliv-6
ering mandatory tutoring, assessing student 7
learning, including through electronic 8
means, or developing curricula or course 9
materials. 10
‘‘(2) The Secretary shall not regulate on the defi-11
nition of a ‘third party servicer’.’’. 12
(f) O
THERREPEALS.—The following regulations (in-13
cluding any supplement or revision to such regulations) are 14
repealed and shall have no legal effect: 15
(1) C
LOSED SCHOOL DISCHARGES .—Sections 16
674.33(g), 682.402(d), and 685.214 of title 34, Code 17
of Federal Regulations (relating to closed school dis-18
charges), as added or amended by the final regula-19
tions published by the Department of Education in 20
the Federal Register on November 1, 2022 (87 Fed. 21
Reg. 65904 et seq.). 22
(2) B
ORROWER DEFENSE TO REPAYMENT .—Sec-23
tion 685.401 of title 34, Code of Federal Regulations 24
(relating to borrower defense to repayment), as added 25
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or amended by the final regulations published by the 1
Department of Education in the Federal Register on 2
November 1, 2022 (87 Fed. Reg. 65904 et seq.). 3
(3) P
RE-DISPUTE ARBITRATION .—Sections 4
668.41, 685.300, and 685.304 of title 34, Code of Fed-5
eral Regulations (relating to pre-dispute arbitration), 6
as added or amended by the final regulations pub-7
lished by the Department of Education in the Federal 8
Register on November 1, 2022 (87 Fed. Reg. 65904 et 9
seq.). 10
(4) F
ALSE CERTIFICATION.—Sections 682.402(e), 11
685.215(c) and 685.215(d) of title 34, Code of Federal 12
Regulations (relating to false certification), as added 13
or amended by the final regulations published by the 14
Department of Education in the Federal Register on 15
November 1, 2022 (87 Fed. Reg. 65904 et seq.). 16
(5) A
DMINISTRATIVE CAPABILITY .—Sections 17
668.16 of title 34, Code of Federal Regulations (relat-18
ing to administrative capability), as added or amend-19
ed by the final regulations published by the Depart-20
ment of Education in the Federal Register on October 21
31, 2023 (87 Fed. Reg. 74568 et seq.). 22
(6) C
ERTIFICATION PROCEDURES .—Sections 23
668.13, 668.14, and 668.43 of title 34, Code of Fed-24
eral Regulations (relating to certification procedures) 25
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as added or amended by the final regulations pub-1
lished by the Department of Education in the Federal 2
Register on October 31, 2023 (87 Fed. Reg. 74568 et 3
seq.). 4
(7) A
BILITY TO BENEFIT .—Sections 668.2, 5
668.32, 668.156, and 668.157 of title 34, Code of Fed-6
eral Regulations (relating to ability to benefit) as 7
added or amended by the final regulations published 8
by the Department of Education in the Federal Reg-9
ister on October 31, 2023 (87 Fed. Reg. 74568 et seq.). 10
(8) P
ERSONAL LIABILITY.—The electronic an-11
nouncement titled ‘‘Establishing Personal Liability 12
Requirements for Financial Losses Related to the 13
Title IV Programs’’ (GENERAL–23–11, published on 14
March 1, 2023). 15
(g) E
FFECT OFREPEAL.—Any regulations repealed by 16
subsections (c) through (e) that were in effect on June 30, 17
2023, are restored and revived as if the repeal of such regu-18
lations under such subsections had not taken effect. 19
(h) P
ROHIBITION.—The Secretary of Education may 20
not implement any rule, regulation, policy, or executive ac-21
tion specified in this section (or a substantially similar 22
rule, regulation, policy, or executive action) unless author-23
ity for such implementation is explicitly provided in an 24
Act of Congress. 25
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(i) PROGRAMREVIEW ANDDATA.—Section 498A (20 1
U.S.C. 1099c–1) is amended by adding at the end the fol-2
lowing: 3
‘‘(f) T
IMELIMIT ONPROGRAMREVIEWACTIVITIES.— 4
In conducting, responding to, and concluding program re-5
view activities, the Secretary shall— 6
‘‘(1) provide to the institution the initial report 7
finding not later than 90 days after concluding an 8
initial site visit; 9
‘‘(2) upon each receipt of an institution’s re-10
sponse during a program review inquiry, respond in 11
a substantive manner within 90 days; 12
‘‘(3) upon each receipt of an institution’s written 13
response to a draft final program review report, pro-14
vide the final program review report and accom-15
panying enforcement actions, if any, within 90 days; 16
and 17
‘‘(4) conclude the entire program review process 18
not later than 2 years after the initiation of a pro-19
gram review, unless the Secretary determines that 20
such a review is sufficiently complex and cannot rea-21
sonably be concluded before the expiration of such 2- 22
year period, in which case the Secretary shall 23
promptly notify the institution of the reasons for such 24
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delay and provide an anticipated date for conclusion 1
of the review.’’. 2
SEC. 303. LIMITATION ON AUTHORITY OF SECRETARY TO 3
PROPOSE OR ISSUE REGULATIONS AND EXEC-4
UTIVE ACTIONS. 5
Part G of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 6
(20 U.S.C. 1088 et seq.) is amended by inserting after sec-7
tion 492 the following: 8
‘‘SEC. 492A. LIMITATION ON AUTHORITY OF THE SEC-9
RETARY TO PROPOSE OR ISSUE REGULA-10
TIONS AND EXECUTIVE ACTIONS. 11
‘‘(a) D
RAFTREGULATIONS.—Beginning after the date 12
of enactment of this section, a draft regulation imple-13
menting this title (as described in section 492(b)(1)) that 14
is determined by the Secretary to be economically signifi-15
cant shall be subject to the following requirements (regard-16
less of whether negotiated rulemaking occurs): 17
‘‘(1) The Secretary shall determine whether the 18
draft regulation, if implemented, would result in an 19
increase in a subsidy cost. 20
‘‘(2) If the Secretary determines under para-21
graph (1) that the draft regulation would result in an 22
increase in a subsidy cost, then the Secretary may 23
take no further action with respect to such regulation. 24
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‘‘(b) PROPOSED ORFINALREGULATIONS ANDEXECU-1
TIVEACTIONS.—Beginning after the date of enactment of 2
this section, the Secretary may not issue a proposed rule, 3
final regulation, or executive action implementing this title 4
if the Secretary determines that the rule, regulation, or exec-5
utive action— 6
‘‘(1) is economically significant; and 7
‘‘(2) would result in an increase in a subsidy 8
cost. 9
‘‘(c) R
ELATIONSHIP TOOTHERREQUIREMENTS.—The 10
analyses required under subsections (a) and (b) shall be in 11
addition to any other cost analysis required under law for 12
a regulation implementing this title, including any cost 13
analysis that may be required pursuant to Executive Order 14
12866 (58 Fed. Reg. 51735; relating to regulatory planning 15
and review), Executive Order 13563 (76 Fed. Reg. 3821; 16
relating to improving regulation and regulatory review), or 17
any related or successor orders. 18
‘‘(d) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘economi-19
cally significant’, when used with respect to a draft, pro-20
posed, or final regulation or executive action, means that 21
the regulation or executive action is likely, as determined 22
by the Secretary— 23
‘‘(1) to have an annual effect on the economy of 24
$100,000,000 or more; or 25
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‘‘(2) adversely to affect in a material way the 1
economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, com-2
petition, jobs, the environment, public health or safe-3
ty, or State, local, or tribal governments or commu-4
nities.’’. 5
SEC. 304. OFFICE OF FEDERAL STUDENT AID. 6
(a) F
EDERALPREEMPTION.—Section 456 (20 U.S.C. 7
1087f) is amended by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(c) F
EDERALPREEMPTION.— 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Covered activities shall not 10
be subject to any law or other requirement of any 11
State or political subdivision of a State with respect 12
to— 13
‘‘(A) disclosure requirements; 14
‘‘(B) requirements or restrictions on the 15
content, time, quantity, or frequency of commu-16
nications with borrowers, endorsers, or references 17
with respect to such loans; or 18
‘‘(C) any other requirement relating to the 19
servicing or collection of a loan made under this 20
title. 21
‘‘(2) C
OVERED ACTIVITIES DEFINED .—In this 22
subsection, the term ‘covered activities’ means any of 23
the following activities, as carried out by a qualified 24
entity: 25
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‘‘(A) Origination of a loan made under this 1
title. 2
‘‘(B) Servicing of a loan made under this 3
title. 4
‘‘(C) Collection of a loan made under this 5
title. 6
‘‘(D) Any other activity related to the ac-7
tivities described in subparagraphs (A) through 8
(C).’’. 9
(b) P
ROCUREMENT FLEXIBILITY.—Section 142 (20 10
U.S.C. 1018a) is amended— 11
(1) by redesignating subsection (l) as subsection 12
(m); and 13
(2) by inserting after subsection (k) the fol-14
lowing: 15
‘‘(l) G
UIDANCE TOSTUDENTLOANSERVICERS.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In notifying a student loan 17
servicer of a final contract modification (as such term 18
is defined in section 2.101 of title 48, Code of Federal 19
Regulations) that instructs such loan servicer to per-20
form a function that is new or different from a func-21
tion such servicer performs pursuant to an existing 22
contract, the PBO shall, not later than 30 days before 23
such contract change takes effect, provide such 24
servicers with written guidance in the form of— 25
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‘‘(A) a change order (as such term is de-1
fined in section 2.101 of title 48, Code of Federal 2
Regulations); 3
‘‘(B) a dear colleague letter; or 4
‘‘(C) an electronic announcement. 5
‘‘(2) N
ON-BINDING DIRECTIVES.—A student loan 6
servicer that is notified of a final contract modifica-7
tion described in paragraph (1) and receives guidance 8
in a form other than a form described in paragraph 9
(1) (including through emails or phone calls) shall 10
not be subject to such contract modification.’’. 11
Subpart 2—Accreditors 12
SEC. 311. ACCREDITING AGENCY RECOGNITION. 13
(a) C
RITERIAREQUIRED.—Section 496(a) of the 14
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)) is 15
amended— 16
(1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), in 17
the first sentence, by striking ‘‘or training’’ and in-18
serting ‘‘skills development’’; 19
(2) by amending paragraph (1) to read as fol-20
lows: 21
‘‘(1) the accrediting agency or association (other 22
than an accrediting agency or association described 23
in paragraph (2)(D)) shall be a State or national 24
agency or association and shall demonstrate the abil-25
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ity to operate as an institutional or programmatic 1
accrediting agency or association within the State or 2
nationally, as appropriate;’’; 3
(3) in paragraph (2)— 4
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 5
(i) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘prin-6
cipal’’; and 7
(ii) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘its 8
principal’’ and inserting ‘‘a’’; and 9
(B) in subparagraph (C), by inserting ‘‘or’’ 10
at the end; and 11
(C) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(D) is an entity (such as an industry-spe-13
cific quality assurance entity) that has been— 14
‘‘(i) determined by a State to be a reli-15
able authority as to the quality of education 16
or skills development offered in such State 17
for the purposes of this Act; and 18
‘‘(ii) designated (in accordance with 19
subsection (b)(1)) by such State as an ac-20
crediting agency or association with respect 21
to such State for such purposes;’’; 22
(4) in paragraph (3)— 23
(A) by amending subparagraph (A) to read 24
as follows: 25
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‘‘(A) subparagraph (A), (C), or (D) of para-1
graph (2), then such agency or association is— 2
‘‘(i) distinctly incorporated or orga-3
nized; and 4
‘‘(ii) both administratively and finan-5
cially separate from, and independent of, 6
any related, associated, or affiliated trade 7
association or membership organization, by 8
ensuring that— 9
‘‘(I) the members of the board or 10
governing body of the accrediting agen-11
cy or association are not elected or se-12
lected by the board or chief executive 13
officer (or the representative of such 14
board or officer) of any related, associ-15
ated, or affiliated trade association or 16
membership organization; 17
‘‘(II) among the membership of 18
the board or governing body of the ac-19
crediting agency or association— 20
‘‘(aa) if such board or body 21
is comprised of 5 or fewer mem-22
bers, there is a minimum of one 23
public member who represents 24
business and who is not a member 25
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of any related, associated, or af-1
filiated trade association or mem-2
bership organization; and 3
‘‘(bb) if such board or body is 4
comprised of 6 or more members, 5
there is a minimum of 1 such 6
public member for every 6 mem-7
bers; 8
‘‘(III) guidelines are established 9
for such members to avoid conflicts of 10
interest, including specific guidelines 11
to ensure that no such member is an 12
employee of any institution accredited 13
by the agency or association or has a 14
financial interest in any such institu-15
tion; 16
‘‘(IV) dues to the accrediting 17
agency or association are paid sepa-18
rately from any dues paid to any re-19
lated, associated, or affiliated trade as-20
sociation or membership organization; 21
and 22
‘‘(V) the budget of the accrediting 23
agency or association is developed, de-24
cided, and maintained by the accred-25
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iting agency or association without 1
any review by, consultation with, or 2
approval by any related, associated, or 3
affiliated trade association or member-4
ship organization;’’; 5
(B) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of subpara-6
graph (B); and 7
(C) by striking subparagraph (C); 8
(5) in paragraph (4)— 9
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 10
(i) by inserting ‘‘(in the manner de-11
scribed in subparagraph (B))’’ after ‘‘reli-12
gious missions’’; and 13
(ii) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; and 14
(B) by striking subparagraph (B) and in-15
serting the following: 16
‘‘(B) such accrediting agency or association 17
consistently applies and enforces standards that 18
respect the stated religious mission of an institu-19
tion of higher education by— 20
‘‘(i) basing decisions regarding accred-21
itation and preaccreditation on the stand-22
ards of accreditation of such agency or asso-23
ciation; and 24
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‘‘(ii) not using as a negative factor the 1
institution’s religious mission based poli-2
cies, decisions, and practices in the areas 3
covered by subparagraphs (B), (C), (D), 4
(E), and (F) of paragraph (5), except that 5
the agency or association may require that 6
the institution’s or a program of study’s 7
curricula include all core components re-8
quired by the agency or association that are 9
not inconsistent with the institution’s reli-10
gious mission; and 11
‘‘(C) such agency or association dem-12
onstrates the ability to review, evaluate, and as-13
sess the quality of any instruction delivery model 14
or method such agency or association has or 15
seeks to include within its scope of recognition, 16
without giving preference to or differentially 17
treating a particular instruction delivery model 18
or method offered by an institution of higher 19
education or program, except that— 20
‘‘(i) in a case in which the instruction 21
delivery model allows for the separation of 22
the student from the instructor, the agency 23
or association shall not be required to have 24
separate standards, procedures, or policies 25
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for the evaluation of the quality of any in-1
struction delivery model or method in order 2
to meet the requirements of this subpara-3
graph; and 4
‘‘(ii) in the case in which the instruc-5
tion delivery model allows for the separa-6
tion of the student from the instructor— 7
‘‘(I) the agency or association re-8
quires the institution to have processes 9
through which the institution estab-10
lishes that the student who registers in 11
a course or program is the same stu-12
dent who participates in the program 13
(including, to the extent practicable, 14
the testing or other assessments re-15
quired under the program), completes 16
the program, and receives the academic 17
credit; and 18
‘‘(II) the agency or association re-19
quires that any process used by an in-20
stitution to comply with the require-21
ment under clause (I) does not infringe 22
upon student privacy and is imple-23
mented in a manner that is minimally 24
burdensome to the student;’’; and 25
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(6) in paragraph (5)— 1
(A) by amending subparagraph (A) to read 2
as follows: 3
‘‘(A) success with respect to student achieve-4
ment outcomes in relation to the institution’s 5
mission and to the programs the institution of-6
fers, or the mission of a specific degree, certifi-7
cate, or credential program, which may include 8
different standards for different institutions or 9
programs, and which shall include— 10
‘‘(i) standards for consideration of the 11
median total price charged to students for a 12
program of study in relation to the median 13
value-added earnings of students who com-14
pleted such program; 15
‘‘(ii) standards for consideration of 16
learning outcomes measures (such as com-17
petency attainment and licensing examina-18
tion passage rates); 19
‘‘(iii) standards for consideration of 20
labor market outcomes measures (such as 21
employer satisfaction surveys, employability 22
measures, earnings gains, employment 23
rates, or other similar approaches); and 24
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‘‘(iv) standards for consideration of 1
student success outcomes measures (such as 2
completion rates, retention rates, and loan 3
repayment rates);’’; 4
(B) by amending subparagraph (I) to read 5
as follows: 6
‘‘(I) record of student complaints received 7
by, or available to, the agency or association, 8
and a process for resolving complaints received 9
by the institution; and’’; and 10
(C) in subparagraph (J), by inserting ‘‘and 11
the median total price charged to students for a 12
program of study in relation to the median 13
value-added earnings of students who completed 14
such program provided by the Secretary’’ after 15
‘‘student loan default rate data provided by the 16
Secretary’’. 17
(b) S
ECRETARIALREQUIREMENTS AND AUTHORITY.— 18
Subsection (b) of section 496 of the Higher Education Act 19
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b) is amended to read as follows: 20
‘‘(b) S
ECRETARIALREQUIREMENTS AND AUTHOR-21
ITY.— 22
‘‘(1) S
TATE DESIGNATED ACCREDITING AGEN -23
CY.— 24
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‘‘(A) APPROVAL OF STATE PLANS .—The 1
Secretary shall— 2
‘‘(i) approve a State’s designation of 3
an entity as an accrediting agency or asso-4
ciation for the purposes described in sub-5
section (a)(2)(D) for a 5-year period, begin-6
ning not later than 30 days after receipt of 7
the plan from such State with respect to 8
such designation, if such plan includes each 9
of the elements listed in subparagraph (B); 10
‘‘(ii) submit to the State and the au-11
thorizing committees, and make publicly 12
available the Secretary’s response to the 13
State with respect to such plan, including 14
whether the plan includes each of the ele-15
ments listed in subparagraph (B); and 16
‘‘(iii) if a State’s designation of an en-17
tity as an accrediting agency or association 18
is approved pursuant to this subparagraph, 19
publish in the Federal Register with a 30- 20
day public comment period— 21
‘‘(I) the plan submitted by such 22
State with respect to such designation; 23
and 24
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‘‘(II) the Secretary’s response to 1
such plan. 2
‘‘(B) R
EQUIRED PLAN ELEMENTS .—The re-3
quired elements of a State plan submitted under 4
subparagraph (A) with respect to the designation 5
of an entity as an accrediting agency or associa-6
tion are as follows: 7
‘‘(i) A description of the process the 8
State used to select the entity for such des-9
ignation. 10
‘‘(ii) A justification of the State’s deci-11
sion to select the entity for such designation. 12
‘‘(iii) A description of any require-13
ments (in addition to the requirements of 14
this section), that the State required the en-15
tity to comply with as a condition of receiv-16
ing and maintaining such designation. 17
‘‘(iv) A copy of the standards, policies, 18
and procedures of the entity that the State 19
considered in selecting the entity for such 20
designation. 21
‘‘(v) The State’s assessment of how the 22
standards for accreditation of the entity 23
will be effective in meeting the requirements 24
of subsection (a)(5). 25
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‘‘(vi) Evidence that at least one other 1
State has determined that such entity is a 2
reliable authority as to the quality of edu-3
cation offered for the purposes of this Act. 4
‘‘(vii) An assurance that the State will 5
comply with the monitoring requirements 6
described in subparagraph (C). 7
‘‘(C) S
TATE MONITORING.— 8
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—A State that has 9
designated an entity as an accrediting 10
agency or association for the purposes de-11
scribed in subsection (a)(2)(D) shall submit 12
to the Secretary, and to the State author-13
izing entity, as appropriate, a report at the 14
end of the 5-year period for which the entity 15
has received such designation, which shall 16
include, with respect to each postsecondary 17
education program or institution that has 18
been accredited by such entity during such 19
period, and disaggregated by type of creden-20
tial, certification, or degree— 21
‘‘(I) the number and percentage of 22
students who have successfully obtained 23
a postsecondary education credential, 24
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certification, or degree offered by such 1
program or institution; and 2
‘‘(II) the number and percentage 3
of students who were enrolled and did 4
not successfully obtain such a creden-5
tial, certification, or degree within 150 6
percent of the program length. 7
‘‘(ii) C
OUNTING TRANSFER STU -8
DENTS.—For purposes of clause (i)(I), a 9
student shall be counted as obtaining a cre-10
dential, certification, or degree offered by a 11
program or institution that was accredited 12
by the entity during the period for which 13
the report under this subparagraph is being 14
submitted, if the student obtains such cre-15
dential, certification, or degree after trans-16
ferring to another institution during such 17
period. 18
‘‘(2) A
UTHORITY TO PROVIDE AN ACCELERATED 19
PATH TO RECOGNITION.—With respect to a prospec-20
tive accrediting agency or association that submits to 21
the Secretary an application for initial recognition 22
under this Act, the Secretary may provide such rec-23
ognition to such agency or association within 2 years 24
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after receipt of such application, if such applica-1
tion— 2
‘‘(A) demonstrates that the agency or asso-3
ciation— 4
‘‘(i) has at least one year of experience 5
in making accreditation or preaccreditation 6
decisions; and 7
‘‘(ii) has policies in place that meet all 8
the criteria under subsection (a) for recogni-9
tion covering the range of the specific de-10
grees, certificates, institutions, or program 11
of study for which the agency or association 12
seeks such recognition; and 13
‘‘(B) provides an assurance that if the agen-14
cy or association receives such recognition, the 15
agency or association will submit to the Sec-16
retary monitoring reports regarding accredita-17
tion or preaccreditation decisions, as appro-18
priate. 19
‘‘(3) D
EVELOPMENT OF COMMON TERMI -20
NOLOGY.—Not later than 18 months after the date of 21
enactment of the College Cost Reduction Act, the Sec-22
retary shall— 23
‘‘(A) convene a panel of experts to develop 24
common terminology for accrediting agencies or 25
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associations to use in making accrediting deci-1
sions with respect to program of study or insti-2
tutions, such as a common understanding of 3
monitoring, warning, show cause, and other rel-4
evant statuses, as appropriate; and 5
‘‘(B) publish the recommendations for such 6
common terminology in the Federal Register 7
with a 60-day public comment period.’’. 8
(c) O
PERATINGPROCEDURESREQUIRED.— 9
(1) O
N-SITE INSPECTIONS AND REVIEWS .—Para-10
graph (1) of section 496(c) (20 U.S.C. 1099b(c)) is 11
amended— 12
(A) by inserting ‘‘(which may vary based 13
on institutional risk consistent with policies pro-14
mulgated by the agency or association to deter-15
mine such risk and interval frequency as author-16
ized under subsection (p))’’ after ‘‘intervals’’; 17
and 18
(B) by striking ‘‘, including those regarding 19
distance education’’. 20
(2) M
ECHANISM TO IDENTIFY INSTITUTIONS AND 21
PROGRAMS EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTIES .—Section 22
496(c) (20 U.S.C. 1099b(c)) is further amended— 23
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(A) by redesignating paragraphs (2) 1
through (9) as paragraphs (3) through (10), re-2
spectively; and 3
(B) by inserting after paragraph (1) the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘(2) develops a policy process to identify any in-6
stitution or program of study accredited by the agen-7
cy or association that is not meeting the standards for 8
accreditation of the agency or association, with a 9
focus on the standards assessing an institution’s or 10
program of study’s student achievement outcomes de-11
scribed in subsection (a)(5)(A), and other indicators, 12
which shall include— 13
‘‘(A) not less than annually, evaluating the 14
extent to which such an identified institution or 15
program of study continues to be in compliance 16
with such standards or other indicators; and 17
‘‘(B) as appropriate, requiring the institu-18
tion or program of study to submit a plan, on 19
an annual basis, to the accrediting agency or as-20
sociation to— 21
‘‘(i) address and remedy performance 22
issues with respect to such compliance; and 23
‘‘(ii) ensure that such plan is success-24
fully implemented;’’. 25
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(3) PROCEDURES WITH RESPECT TO SUB -1
STANTIVE CHANGES.—Paragraph (5) of section 496(c) 2
(20 U.S.C. 1099b(c)) (as redesignated by paragraph 3
(2)(A)) is amended to read as follows: 4
‘‘(5) establishes and applies or maintains poli-5
cies, which ensure that any substantive change to the 6
educational mission, program of study, or program of 7
study of an institution after the agency or association 8
has granted the institution accreditation or 9
preaccreditation status does not adversely affect the 10
capacity of the institution to continue to meet the 11
agency’s or association’s standards for such accredita-12
tion or preaccreditation status, which shall include 13
policies that— 14
‘‘(A) require the institution to obtain the 15
agency’s or association’s approval of the sub-16
stantive change before the agency or association 17
includes the change in the scope of the institu-18
tion’s accreditation or preaccreditation status; 19
and 20
‘‘(B) define substantive change to include, 21
at a minimum— 22
‘‘(i) any change in the established mis-23
sion or objectives of the institution; 24
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‘‘(ii) any change in the legal status, 1
form of control, or ownership of the institu-2
tion, including the acquisition or addition 3
of any other institution or new location 4
where more than 50 percent of a program 5
is offered; 6
‘‘(iii) the addition of program of study 7
at a higher credential level from the creden-8
tial level previously accredited by the agen-9
cy or association; or 10
‘‘(iv) the entering into a contract 11
under which an institution or organization 12
not certified to participate in programs 13
under this title offers more than 25 percent 14
but less than 50 percent of the instruction 15
of an educational program of the institution 16
with such accreditation or preaccreditation 17
status;’’. 18
(4) P
UBLIC AVAILABILITY.—Section 496(c) (20 19
U.S.C. 1099b(c)) is further amended— 20
(A) in paragraph (8) (as redesignated by 21
paragraph (2)(A))— 22
(i) in the matter preceding subpara-23
graph (A), by inserting ‘‘, on the agency’s 24
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or association’s website,’’ after ‘‘public’’; 1
and 2
(ii) in subparagraph (C), by inserting 3
before the semicolon at the end the fol-4
lowing: ‘‘, and a summary of why such ac-5
tion was taken or such placement was 6
made’’; 7
(B) in paragraph (9) (as so redesignated), 8
by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 9
(C) in paragraph (10)(B) (as so redesig-10
nated), by striking the period at the end and in-11
serting the following: ‘‘, including an assurance 12
that the institution does not deny a transfer of 13
credit based solely on the accreditation of the in-14
stitution at which the credit was earned;’’; and 15
(D) by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(11) such agency or association shall make pub-17
licly available, on the agency or association’s website, 18
a list of the institutions of higher education or pro-19
gram of study accredited by such agency or associa-20
tion, which includes, with respect to each such insti-21
tution or program of study— 22
‘‘(A) the year accreditation was granted; 23
‘‘(B) the most recent date of an award of 24
accreditation or reaccreditation; and 25
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‘‘(C) the anticipated date of the institution’s 1
next evaluation for reaccreditation;’’. 2
(5) P
ROHIBITION ON LITMUS TESTS .—Section 3
496(c) (20 U.S.C. 1099b(c)) is further amended by 4
adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(12) confirms that the standards for accredita-6
tion of the agency or association do not— 7
‘‘(A) except as provided in subparagraph 8
(B)— 9
‘‘(i) require, encourage, or coerce any 10
institution to— 11
‘‘(I) support, oppose, or commit to 12
supporting or opposing— 13
‘‘(aa) a specific partisan, po-14
litical, or ideological viewpoint or 15
belief or set of such viewpoints or 16
beliefs; or 17
‘‘(bb) a specific viewpoint or 18
belief or set of viewpoints or be-19
liefs on social, cultural, or polit-20
ical issues; or 21
‘‘(II) support or commit to sup-22
porting the disparate treatment of any 23
individual or group of individuals on 24
the basis of any protected class under 25
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Federal civil rights law, except as re-1
quired by Federal law or a court order; 2
or 3
‘‘(ii) assess an institution’s or program 4
of study’s commitment to any ideology, be-5
lief, or viewpoint; or 6
‘‘(B) prohibit an institution— 7
‘‘(i) from having a religious mission or 8
from requiring an applicant, student, em-9
ployee, or independent contractor (such as 10
an adjunct professor) of such an institution 11
to— 12
‘‘(I) provide or adhere to a state-13
ment of faith; or 14
‘‘(II) adhere to a code of conduct 15
consistent with the stated religious 16
mission of such institution or the reli-17
gious tenets of such organization; or 18
‘‘(ii) from requiring an applicant, stu-19
dent, employee, or contractor to take an 20
oath to uphold the Constitution of the 21
United States; or 22
‘‘(C) require, encourage, or coerce an insti-23
tution of higher education to violate any right 24
protected by the Constitution;’’. 25
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(6) PROHIBITION ON ASSESSMENT OF ELECTED 1
OR APPOINTED OFFICIALS.—Section 496(c) (20 U.S.C. 2
1099b(c)) is further amended by adding at the end the 3
following: 4
‘‘(13) confirms that the standards for accredita-5
tion of the agency or association do not assess the 6
roles (including actions or statements) of elected and 7
appointed State and Federal officials and legislative 8
bodies; and’’. 9
(7) P
ROHIBITION OF PRACTICES THAT DRIVE 10
CREDENTIAL INFLATION.—Section 496(c) (20 U.S.C. 11
1099b(c)) is further amended by adding at the end the 12
following: 13
‘‘(14) confirms that the standards for accredita-14
tion of the agency or association do not require an in-15
stitution to develop a program of study leading to a 16
degree, certificate, or recognized postsecondary creden-17
tial that is not in response to the needs of an industry 18
or occupation.’’. 19
(d) L
ENGTH OFRECOGNITION.—Subsection (d) of sec-20
tion 496 (20 U.S.C. 1099b) is amended— 21
(1) by striking ‘‘No accrediting’’ and inserting 22
the following: 23
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as otherwise provided 24
in paragraph (2), no accrediting’’; and 25
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(2) by adding at the end the following new para-1
graph: 2
‘‘(2) L
ONGER RECOGNITION AUTHORIZED FOR 3
CERTAIN AGENCIES AND ASSOCIATIONS .—Notwith-4
standing paragraph (1), an accrediting agency or as-5
sociation that has been recognized by the Secretary for 6
the purpose of this Act for a period of 5 years, may 7
be recognized for an additional period of up to 3 8
years, if the Secretary determines, based on the per-9
formance of the accrediting agency or association dur-10
ing its recognition period under this Act, that the ac-11
crediting agency or association— 12
‘‘(A) has the capability to evaluate the qual-13
ity of institutions or program of study; and 14
‘‘(B) has maintained compliance with the 15
criteria for accrediting agencies or associations 16
required by this section.’’. 17
(e) L
IMITATION ONSCOPE OFCRITERIA.—Section 496 18
(20 U.S.C. 1099b) is further amended by amending sub-19
section (g) to read as follows: 20
‘‘(g) L
IMITATION ONSCOPE OFCRITERIA.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall not es-22
tablish criteria for accrediting agencies or associa-23
tions that are not required by this section. 24
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‘‘(2) INSTITUTIONAL ELIGIBILITY.—An institu-1
tion of higher education shall be eligible for participa-2
tion in programs under this title if the institution is 3
in compliance with the standards of its accrediting 4
agency or association that assess the institution in ac-5
cordance with subsection (a)(5), regardless of any ad-6
ditional standards adopted by the agency or associa-7
tion for purposes unrelated to participation in pro-8
grams under this title.’’. 9
(f) C
HANGE OFACCREDITINGAGENCY.—Section 496 10
(20 U.S.C. 1099b) is further amended by amending sub-11
section (h) to read as follows: 12
‘‘(h) C
HANGE OFACCREDITINGAGENCY ORASSOCIA-13
TION.— 14
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall recognize 15
the accreditation of any otherwise eligible institution 16
or program of study if the institution (or program) 17
is in the process of changing its accrediting agency or 18
association, unless the institution (or program) is 19
subject to one or more covered actions. 20
‘‘(2) C
OVERED ACTION DEFINED .—For purposes 21
of this subsection, the term ‘covered action’ means one 22
or more of the following, when used with respect to an 23
institution or program of study: 24
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‘‘(A) A pending or final action brought by 1
a State agency to suspend, revoke, withdraw, or 2
terminate the institution’s legal authority to pro-3
vide postsecondary education in the State. 4
‘‘(B) A decision by a recognized accrediting 5
agency or association to deny accreditation or 6
preaccreditation to the institution or program of 7
study. 8
‘‘(C) A pending or final action brought by 9
a recognized accrediting agency or association to 10
suspend, revoke, withdraw, or terminate the in-11
stitution’s or program of study’s accreditation or 12
preaccreditation. 13
‘‘(D) Probation or an equivalent status im-14
posed on the institution or program of study by 15
a recognized accrediting agency or association. 16
‘‘(3) I
NSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION NOT 17
SUBJECT TO COVERED ACTIONS .—An institution (or 18
program of study ) that is not subject to a covered ac-19
tion described in paragraph (1) and that desires to 20
change its accrediting agency or association for a rea-21
son not related to any such covered action (such as 22
compliance with State law) may make such a change 23
without the approval of the Secretary, as long as the 24
institution (or program) and the new accrediting 25
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agency or association of the institution (or program), 1
not later than 30 days after the accreditation decision 2
by such agency or association, notify the Secretary, in 3
writing, of the effective date of the institution’s (or 4
program’s)accreditation by such agency or associa-5
tion.’’. 6
(g) D
UALACCREDITATIONRULE.—Section 496 (20 7
U.S.C. 1099b) is further amended by amending subsection 8
(i) to read as follows: 9
‘‘(i) D
UALACCREDITATIONRULE.— 10
‘‘(1) R
ECOGNITION BY SECRETARY .—The Sec-11
retary shall recognize the accreditation of any other-12
wise eligible institution of higher education if the in-13
stitution of higher education is accredited, as an in-14
stitution, by more than one accrediting agency or as-15
sociation. 16
‘‘(2) D
ESIGNATION BY INSTITUTION.—If the in-17
stitution is accredited, as an institution, by more 18
than one accrediting agency or association, the insti-19
tution— 20
‘‘(A) shall designate which agency’s or asso-21
ciation’s accreditation shall be utilized in deter-22
mining the institution’s eligibility for participa-23
tion in programs under this Act; and 24
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‘‘(B) may change this designation at the 1
end of the institution’s period of recognition.’’. 2
(h) R
ELIGIOUSINSTITUTIONSRULE.—Section 496 (20 3
U.S.C. 1099b) is further amended by amending subsection 4
(k) to read as follows: 5
‘‘(k) R
ELIGIOUSINSTITUTIONRULE.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding subsection 7
(j), the Secretary shall allow an institution that has 8
had its accreditation withdrawn, revoked, or other-9
wise terminated, or has voluntarily withdrawn from 10
an accreditation agency, to remain certified as an in-11
stitution of higher education under section 102 and 12
subpart 3 of this part for a period sufficient to allow 13
such institution to obtain alternative accreditation, if 14
the Secretary determines that the withdrawal, revoca-15
tion, or termination— 16
‘‘(A) is related to the religious mission or 17
affiliation of the institution; and 18
‘‘(B) is not related to the accreditation cri-19
teria provided for in this section. 20
‘‘(2) A
DMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINT FOR FAILURE 21
TO RESPECT RELIGIOUS MISSION .— 22
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.— 23
‘‘(i) I
NSTITUTION.—If an institution of 24
higher education believes that an adverse 25
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action of an accrediting agency or associa-1
tion fails to respect the institution’s reli-2
gious mission in violation of subsection 3
(a)(4)(B), the institution— 4
‘‘(I) may file a complaint with 5
the Secretary to review the adverse ac-6
tion of the agency or association; and 7
‘‘(II) prior to filing such com-8
plaint, shall notify the Secretary and 9
the agency or association of an intent 10
to file such complaint not later than 30 11
days after— 12
‘‘(aa) receiving the adverse 13
action from the agency or associa-14
tion; or 15
‘‘(bb) determining that dis-16
cussions with or the processes of 17
the agency or association to rem-18
edy the failure to respect the reli-19
gious mission of the institution 20
will fail to result in the with-21
drawal of the adverse action by 22
the agency or association. 23
‘‘(ii) A
CCREDITING AGENCY OR ASSO -24
CIATION.—Upon notification of an intent to 25
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file a complaint and through the duration 1
of the complaint process under this para-2
graph, the Secretary and the accrediting 3
agency or association shall treat the accred-4
itation status of the institution of higher 5
education as if the adverse action for which 6
the institution is filing the complaint had 7
not been taken. 8
‘‘(B) C
OMPLAINT.—Not later than 45 days 9
after providing notice of the intent to file a com-10
plaint, the institution shall file the complaint 11
with the Secretary (and provide a copy to the 12
accrediting agency or association), which shall 13
include— 14
‘‘(i) a description of the adverse action; 15
‘‘(ii) how the adverse action fails to re-16
spect the institution’s religious mission in 17
violation of subsection (a)(4)(B); and 18
‘‘(iii) any other information the insti-19
tution determines relevant to the complaint. 20
‘‘(C) R
ESPONSE.— 21
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The accrediting 22
agency or association shall have 30 days 23
from the date the complaint is filed with the 24
Secretary to file with the Secretary (and 25
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provide a copy to the institution) a response 1
to the complaint, which response shall in-2
clude— 3
‘‘(I) how the adverse action is 4
based on a violation of the agency or 5
association’s standards for accredita-6
tion; and 7
‘‘(II) how the adverse action does 8
not fail to respect the religious mission 9
of the institution and is in compliance 10
with subsection (a)(4)(B). 11
‘‘(ii) B
URDEN OF PROOF.— 12
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—The accred-13
iting agency or association shall bear 14
the burden of proving that the agency 15
or association has not taken the ad-16
verse action as a result of the institu-17
tion’s religious mission, and that the 18
action does not fail to respect the insti-19
tution’s religious mission in violation 20
of subsection (a)(4)(B), by showing 21
that the adverse action does not impact 22
the aspect of the religious mission 23
claimed to be affected in the complaint. 24
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‘‘(II) INSUFFICIENT PROOF.—Any 1
evidence that the adverse action results 2
from the application of a neutral and 3
generally applicable rule shall be insuf-4
ficient to prove that the action does not 5
fail to respect an institution’s religious 6
mission. 7
‘‘(D) A
DDITIONAL INSTITUTION RE -8
SPONSE.—The institution shall have 30 days 9
from the date on which the agency or associa-10
tion’s response is filed with the Secretary to— 11
‘‘(i) file with the Secretary (and pro-12
vide a copy to the agency or association) a 13
response to any issues raised in the response 14
of the agency or association; or 15
‘‘(ii) inform the Secretary and the 16
agency or association that the institution 17
elects to waive the right to respond to the 18
response of the agency or association. 19
‘‘(E) S
ECRETARIAL ACTION.— 20
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 30 21
days of receipt of the institution’s response 22
under subparagraph (D) or notification 23
that the institution elects not to file a re-24
sponse under such subparagraph— 25
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‘‘(I) the Secretary shall review the 1
materials to determine if the accred-2
iting agency or association has met its 3
burden of proof under subparagraph 4
(C)(ii)(I); or 5
‘‘(II) in a case in which the Sec-6
retary fails to conduct such review— 7
‘‘(aa) the Secretary shall be 8
deemed as determining that the 9
adverse action fails to respect the 10
religious mission of the institu-11
tion; and 12
‘‘(bb) the accrediting agency 13
or association shall be required to 14
reverse the action immediately 15
and take no further action with 16
respect to such adverse action. 17
‘‘(ii) R
EVIEW OF COMPLAINT.—In re-18
viewing the complaint under clause (i)(I)— 19
‘‘(I) the Secretary shall consider 20
the institution to be correct in the as-21
sertion that the adverse action fails to 22
respect the institution’s religious mis-23
sion and shall apply the burden of 24
proof described in subparagraph 25
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(C)(ii)(I) with respect to the accred-1
iting agency or association; and 2
‘‘(II) if the Secretary determines 3
that the accrediting agency or associa-4
tion fails to meet such burden of 5
proof— 6
‘‘(aa) the Secretary shall no-7
tify the institution and the agency 8
or association that the agency or 9
association is not in compliance 10
with subsection (a)(4)(B), and 11
that such agency or association 12
shall carry out the requirements of 13
item (bb) to be in compliance 14
with subsection (a)(4)(B); and 15
‘‘(bb) the agency or associa-16
tion shall reverse the adverse ac-17
tion immediately and take no fur-18
ther action with respect to such 19
adverse action. 20
‘‘(iii) F
INAL DEPARTMENTAL AC -21
TION.—The Secretary’s determination under 22
this subparagraph shall be the final action 23
of the Department on the complaint. 24
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‘‘(F) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 1
this paragraph shall prohibit— 2
‘‘(i) an accrediting agency or associa-3
tion from taking an adverse action against 4
an institution of higher education for a fail-5
ure to comply with the agency or associa-6
tion’s standards of accreditation as long as 7
such standards are in compliance with sub-8
section (a)(4)(B) and any other applicable 9
requirements of this section; or 10
‘‘(ii) an institution of higher education 11
from exercising any other rights to address 12
concerns with respect to an accrediting 13
agency or association or the accreditation 14
process of an accrediting agency or associa-15
tion. 16
‘‘(G) G
UIDANCE.— 17
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may 18
only issue guidance under this paragraph 19
that explains or clarifies the process for pro-20
viding notice of an intent to file a com-21
plaint or for filing a complaint under this 22
paragraph. 23
‘‘(ii) C
LARIFICATION.—The Secretary 24
may not issue guidance, or otherwise deter-25
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mine or suggest, when discussions to remedy 1
the failure by an accrediting agency or as-2
sociation to respect the religious mission of 3
an institution of higher education referred 4
to in subparagraph (A)(i)(II)(bb) have 5
failed or will fail. 6
‘‘(3) R
ELIGIOUS MISSION DEFINED.—In this Act, 7
the term ‘religious mission’— 8
‘‘(A) means a published institutional mis-9
sion that is approved by the governing body of 10
an institution of higher education and that in-11
cludes, refers to, or is predicated upon religious 12
tenets, beliefs, or teachings; and 13
‘‘(B) may be reflected in any of the institu-14
tion’s policies, decisions, or practices related to 15
such tenets, beliefs, or teachings (including any 16
policies or decisions concerning housing, employ-17
ment, curriculum, self-governance, or student ad-18
mission, continuing enrollment, or gradua-19
tion).’’. 20
(i) I
NDEPENDENT EVALUATION.—Section 496(n)(3) 21
(20 U.S.C. 1099b(n)(3)) is amended by striking the last sen-22
tence. 23
(j) R
EGULATIONS.—Section 496(o) (20 U.S.C. 24
1099b(o)) is amended by inserting before the period at the 25
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end the following: ‘‘, or with respect to the policies and pro-1
cedures of an accreditation agency or association described 2
in paragraph (2) or (5) of subsection (c) or how the agency 3
or association carries out such policies and procedures’’. 4
(k) R
ISK-BASEDREVIEWPROCESSES OR PROCE-5
DURES; WAIVER.—Section 496 (20 U.S.C. 1099b) is further 6
amended— 7
(1) by striking subsections (p) and (q); and 8
(2) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(p) R
ISK-BASED ORDIFFERENTIATEDREVIEWPROC-10
ESSES ORPROCEDURES.— 11
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 12
provision of law (including subsection (a)(4)(A)), an 13
accrediting agency or association shall establish risk- 14
based processes or procedures for assessing compliance 15
with the accrediting agency or association’s standards 16
(including policies related to substantive change and 17
award of accreditation statuses) under which the 18
agency or association— 19
‘‘(A) creates a system for understanding an 20
institution’s or program of study’s performance 21
in comparison with other similarly situated in-22
stitutions or programs of study (which may in-23
clude past performance with respect to meeting 24
the accrediting agency or association’s stand-25
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ards, including the standards relating to the stu-1
dent achievement outcomes described in sub-2
clauses (I) through (IV) of subsection (a)(5)(A)); 3
‘‘(B) requires for each institution and pro-4
gram of study designated as high-risk, in accord-5
ance with the accrediting agency or association’s 6
system in subparagraph (A), to submit the an-7
nual plans described in subsection (c)(2)(B) to 8
the agency or association that address the per-9
formance issues of such institution or program of 10
study that resulted in such designation; 11
‘‘(C) with respect to institutions or program 12
of study meeting or exceeding performance as de-13
scribed in subparagraph (A), reduces any com-14
pliance requirements with the standards of ac-15
creditation of the agency that are not assessing 16
an institution or program of study under sub-17
section (a)(5), such as on-site inspections; and 18
‘‘(D) may require an institution or pro-19
gram of study that has declining performance 20
(such as an institution or program of study with 21
a high-risk designation under subparagraph 22
(B)), which has not improved as required by the 23
annual plan submitted under subsection 24
(c)(2)(B), to take actions to avoid or minimize 25
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the risks that may lead to revocation of accredi-1
tation (such as limiting certain program of 2
study enrollment or recommending to the Sec-3
retary to limit funds under this title for such an 4
institution or program. 5
‘‘(2) P
ROHIBITION.—Any risk-based review proc-6
ess or procedure established pursuant to this sub-7
section shall not discriminate against, or otherwise 8
preclude, institutions of higher education based on in-9
stitutional sector or category, including an institution 10
of higher education’s tax status.’’. 11
(l) T
OTALPRICEDEFINED.—Section 496 (20 U.S.C. 12
1099b) is further amended by adding at the end the fol-13
lowing: 14
‘‘(q) T
OTALPRICEDEFINED.—For purposes of this 15
section, the term ‘total price’ has the meaning given such 16
term in section 454(d)(3).’’. 17
SEC. 312. NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON INSTITU-18
TIONAL QUALITY AND INTEGRITY (NACIQI). 19
Section 114 (20 U.S.C. 1011c) is amended— 20
(1) in subsection (b)— 21
(A) in paragraph (2), by redesignating sub-22
paragraphs (A) through (C) as clauses (i) 23
through (iii), respectively, and adjusting the 24
margins accordingly; 25
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(B) by striking ‘‘Individuals’’ and inserting 1
the following: 2
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Individuals’’; 3
(C) in clause (ii), as so redesignated, by 4
striking ‘‘and training’’ and inserting ‘‘skills de-5
velopment’’; 6
(D) by adding at the end of paragraph (2) 7
the following: 8
‘‘(B) D
ISQUALIFICATION.—No individual 9
may be appointed as a member of the Committee 10
if such individual has a significant conflict of 11
interest, such as being a current regulator (such 12
as a State authorizer), that would require the in-13
dividual to frequently be recused from serving as 14
a member of the Committee.’’; and 15
(E) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘Except 16
as provided in paragraph (5), the term’’ and in-17
serting ‘‘The term’’; 18
(2) in subsection (c)— 19
(A) in paragraph (4), by adding ‘‘and’’ at 20
the end; 21
(B) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 22
at the end and inserting a period; and 23
(C) by striking paragraph (6); 24
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(3) in subsection (d)(2), by inserting at the end 1
the following: ‘‘The name of any member of the Com-2
mittee who has been recused with respect to an agen-3
da item of the meeting shall be included in such agen-4
da.’’; 5
(4) in subsection (e)(2)(D), by striking ‘‘, includ-6
ing any additional functions established by the Sec-7
retary through regulation’’; and 8
(5) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘September 30, 9
2021’’ and inserting ‘‘September 30, 2028’’. 10
SEC. 313. ALTERNATIVE QUALITY ASSURANCE EXPERI-11
MENTAL SITE INITIATIVE. 12
Section 487A of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 13
U.S.C. 1094a) is amended— 14
(1) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection 15
(d); and 16
(2) by inserting after subsection (b) the end the 17
following: 18
‘‘(c) A
LTERNATIVEQUALITYASSURANCEEXPERI-19
MENTALSITEINITIATIVE.— 20
‘‘(1) E
XPERIMENTAL SITE AUTHORIZED .—The 21
Secretary shall select, in accordance with paragraph 22
(4), eligible entities that voluntarily seek to partici-23
pate in an Alternative Quality Assurance experi-24
mental site initiative for a duration of 5 years and 25
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receive the waivers or other flexibility described in 1
paragraph (5) to evaluate whether the eligible entities, 2
during such 5-year period, can maintain high student 3
achievement outcomes while participating in pro-4
grams under this title without being accredited by an 5
accrediting agency or association recognized under 6
section 496. 7
‘‘(2) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY DEFINED.—For purposes 8
of this subsection, an eligibility entity means— 9
‘‘(A) an institution of higher education (as 10
defined in section 102); or 11
‘‘(B) an educational provider that— 12
‘‘(i) is not an institution of higher edu-13
cation; 14
‘‘(ii) does not receive funding under 15
this Act; 16
‘‘(iii) is not accredited by an accred-17
iting agency or association for the purposes 18
of this title; and 19
‘‘(iv) is authorized to operate in the 20
State in which the provider is located. 21
‘‘(3) A
PPLICATION.— 22
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each eligible entity de-23
siring to participate in the experimental site ini-24
tiative under this subsection shall submit an ap-25
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plication to the Secretary, at such time and in 1
such manner as the Secretary may require, 2
which shall contain the information described in 3
subparagraph (B). The Secretary may not re-4
quire any information in such an application 5
that is not described in subparagraph (B). 6
‘‘(B) C
ONTENTS.—Each application under 7
paragraph (1) shall include— 8
‘‘(i) a description of which program of 9
study offered at the eligible entity will be 10
included in the experimental site initiative, 11
including— 12
‘‘(I) in the case of an eligible enti-13
ty that is an institution of higher edu-14
cation, an attestation that such pro-15
gram meets the standards of accredita-16
tion of the institution’s accrediting 17
agency or association described in 18
clauses (i) through (iv) of section 19
496(a)(5)(A) (including the standard 20
requiring that the median value-added 21
earnings of students who complete the 22
program are greater than the median 23
total price charged to students for the 24
program); and 25
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‘‘(II) in the case of an eligible en-1
tity defined in paragraph (2)(B), docu-2
mentation and verified administrative 3
data that the program meets standards 4
similar to the standards of accredita-5
tion referenced in subclause (I); 6
‘‘(ii) a justification of the reason why 7
the eligible entity seeks to receive the waiver 8
described in paragraph (5)(A), including es-9
timates or documentation of the potential 10
savings to the entity of receiving such waiv-11
er; and 12
‘‘(iii) a description of how the eligible 13
entity plans to share the financial risk with 14
the Secretary of receiving the waivers de-15
scribed in paragraph (5), such as by— 16
‘‘(I) providing matching non-Fed-17
eral funds to the Secretary to cover the 18
cost of at least half of the expected dis-19
bursements under this title to the stu-20
dents that enroll in such program for 21
the first year of the experiment; 22
‘‘(II) providing a letter of credit 23
to the Secretary to cover the cost de-24
scribed in subclause (I); or 25
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‘‘(III) requesting to be placed on a 1
reimbursement system of payment. 2
‘‘(4) S
ELECTION.—No later than 6 months after 3
the experimental site initiative is announced, the Sec-4
retary shall select eligible entities to participate in the 5
initiative based on the applications submitted under 6
paragraph (3). In making such selections, the Sec-7
retary— 8
‘‘(A) shall consider— 9
‘‘(i) the number and quality of appli-10
cations; 11
‘‘(ii) each applicant’s ability to effec-12
tively share the financial risk as required 13
under paragraph (3)(B)(iii); and 14
‘‘(iii) in the case of an applicant that 15
is an institution of higher education, the 16
applicant’s history of compliance with the 17
requirements of this Act; 18
‘‘(B) shall ensure that the selected eligible 19
entities represent a variety of eligible entities 20
with respect to size, mission, and geographic dis-21
tribution; 22
‘‘(C) shall ensure that the number of eligible 23
entities selected that are institutions of higher 24
education described in paragraph (2)(B) is equal 25
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to the number of eligible entities selected that are 1
educational providers described in paragraph 2
(2)(B); and 3
‘‘(D) may not select any eligible entity 4
whose approval to operate in a State is at risk. 5
‘‘(5) W
AIVERS.—The Secretary is authorized to 6
waive, for any eligible entity participating in the ex-7
perimental site initiative under this subsection— 8
‘‘(A) any requirements conditioning an eli-9
gible entity’s eligibility to participate in pro-10
grams under this title to being accredited by an 11
accrediting agency or association recognized 12
under section 496; and 13
‘‘(B) any other requirements of this title de-14
termined necessary by the Secretary to carry out 15
such initiative (including requirements related to 16
the award process and disbursement of student 17
financial aid, or other management procedures 18
or processes), except that the Secretary shall not 19
waive any provisions with respect to award rules 20
(other than an award rule related to an experi-21
ment in modular or compressed schedules), grant 22
and loan maximum award amounts, and need 23
analysis requirements, unless the waiver of such 24
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provisions is authorized by another provision 1
under this title. 2
‘‘(6) R
EVIEW AND EVALUATION.— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall re-4
view and evaluate the experimental site initia-5
tive conducted under this subsection, including 6
by evaluating, with respect to each participating 7
program of each participating eligible entity, 8
whether— 9
‘‘(i) the median value-added earnings 10
of students who complete the program of 11
study are greater than the median total 12
price charged to students for such program; 13
and 14
‘‘(ii) the program of study is meeting 15
other student achievement outcomes (such as 16
outcomes based on standards of accredita-17
tion described in section 496(a)(5)(A)), as 18
appropriate for the program. 19
‘‘(B) R
ECOMMENDATIONS.—If, based on 20
such evaluation, the Secretary determines that 21
participating eligible entities were able to meet 22
the requirement of subparagraph (A)(i) and the 23
other student achievement outcomes evaluated by 24
the Secretary under subparagraph (A)(ii), the 25
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Secretary shall submit to the authorizing com-1
mittees recommendations regarding amendments 2
to this Act that will streamline and enhance the 3
quality assurance process of institutions of high-4
er education, and educational providers de-5
scribed in paragraph (2)(B).’’. 6
PART B—STUDENT SUCCESS 7
SEC. 321. POSTSECONDARY STUDENT SUCCESS GRANTS. 8
Part B of title VII of the Higher Education Act of 1965 9
(20 U.S.C. 1138 et seq.) is amended— 10
(1) in section 741— 11
(A) by striking subsections (b), (c), (e), and 12
(f); 13
(B) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub-14
section (c); and 15
(C) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol-16
lowing: 17
‘‘(b) G
RANTS.— 18
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 19
‘‘(A) C
OMPLETION RATE.—The term ‘com-20
pletion rate’ means— 21
‘‘(i) the percentage of students from an 22
initial cohort enrolled at an institution of 23
higher education that is a 2-year institution 24
who have graduated from the institution or 25
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transferred to a 4-year institution of higher 1
education; or 2
‘‘(ii) the percentage of students from 3
an initial cohort enrolled at an institution 4
of higher education in the State that is a 4- 5
year institution who have graduated from 6
the institution. 7
‘‘(B) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible 8
entity’ means— 9
‘‘(i) an institution of higher education; 10
‘‘(ii) a partnership between a non-11
profit educational organization and an in-12
stitution of higher education; and 13
‘‘(iii) a consortium of institutions of 14
higher education. 15
‘‘(C) E
LIGIBLE INDIAN ENTITY.—The term 16
‘eligible Indian entity’ means the entity respon-17
sible for the governance, operation, or control of 18
a Tribal College or University. 19
‘‘(D) E
VIDENCE-BASED.—The term ‘evi-20
dence-based’ has the meaning given the term in 21
section 8101(21)(A) of the Elementary and Sec-22
ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 23
7801(21)(A)), except that such term shall also 24
apply to institutions of higher education. 25
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‘‘(E) EVIDENCE TIERS.— 1
‘‘(i) E
VIDENCE TIER 1 REFORM OR 2
PRACTICE.—The term ‘evidence tier 1 re-3
form or practice’ means a reform or prac-4
tice that prior research suggests has promise 5
for the purpose of successfully improving 6
student achievement or attainment for high- 7
need students. 8
‘‘(ii) E
VIDENCE TIER 2 REFORM OR 9
PRACTICE.—The term ‘evidence tier 2 re-10
form or practice’ means a reform or prac-11
tice described in clause (i), or other practice 12
meeting similar criteria, that measures im-13
pact and cost effectiveness of student success 14
activities, and, through rigorous evaluation 15
(including through the use of existing ad-16
ministrative data, as applicable), has been 17
found to be successfully implemented. 18
‘‘(iii) E
VIDENCE TIER 3 REFORM OR 19
PRACTICE.—The term ‘evidence tier 3 re-20
form or practice’ means a reform or prac-21
tice described in clause (ii), or other prac-22
tice meeting similar criteria, that has been 23
found to produce sizable, important impacts 24
on student success and— 25
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‘‘(I) determines whether such im-1
pacts can be successfully reproduced 2
and sustained over time; and 3
‘‘(II) identifies the conditions in 4
which such reform or practice is most 5
effective. 6
‘‘(F) F
IRST GENERATION COLLEGE STU -7
DENT.—The term ‘first generation college stu-8
dent’ has the meaning given the term in section 9
402A(h) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 10
U.S.C. 1070a–11(h)). 11
‘‘(G) H
IGH-NEED STUDENT .—The term 12
‘high-need student’ means— 13
‘‘(i) a student from low-income back-14
ground; 15
‘‘(ii) first generation college students; 16
‘‘(iii) caregiver students; 17
‘‘(iv) students with disabilities; 18
‘‘(v) students who stopped out before 19
completing; 20
‘‘(vi) reentering justice-impacted stu-21
dents; and 22
‘‘(vii) military-connected students. 23
‘‘(H) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ 24
means the Secretary of Education. 25
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‘‘(I) TRIBAL COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY .— 1
The term ‘Tribal College or University’ has the 2
meaning given the term in section 316(b) of the 3
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 4
1059c(b)). 5
‘‘(2) R
ESERVATION OF FUNDS FOR ELIGIBLE IN -6
DIAN ENTITIES.—From the total amount appro-7
priated to carry out this subsection for a fiscal year, 8
the Secretary shall reserve 2 percent for grants to eli-9
gible Indian entities to increase participation and 10
completion rates of high-need students. 11
‘‘(3) A
UTHORIZATION OF POSTSECONDARY STU -12
DENT SUCCESS COMPETITIVE GRANTS .— 13
‘‘(A) G
RANT AUTHORIZATION.—For each of 14
fiscal years 2025 through 2030, the Secretary 15
shall award, on a competitive basis, grants to el-16
igible entities to provide student services to in-17
crease participation, retention, and completion 18
rates of high-need students. 19
‘‘(B) A
PPLICATION.—An eligible entity de-20
siring a grant under this section shall submit an 21
application to the Secretary at such time, in 22
such manner, and containing the information re-23
quired under subparagraph (C). 24
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‘‘(C) CONTENTS.—An application submitted 1
under this paragraph shall include the following: 2
‘‘(i) A plan to increase, with respect to 3
all students enrolled at the institution of 4
higher education, attainment and comple-5
tion rates or graduation rates, including— 6
‘‘(I) a description of which evi-7
dence tiers would be met by the evi-8
dence-based reforms or practices; and 9
‘‘(II) a particular focus on serv-10
ing high-need students through student 11
services and collaboration among 2- 12
year programs, 4-year programs, and 13
workforce systems. 14
‘‘(ii) Annual benchmarks for student 15
outcomes with respect to evidence-based re-16
forms or practices. 17
‘‘(iii) A plan to evaluate the evidence- 18
based reforms or practices carried out pur-19
suant to a grant received under this sub-20
section. 21
‘‘(iv) Rates of enrolled students who re-22
ceived a Federal Pell Grant under section 23
401. 24
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‘‘(v) Demographics of enrolled students, 1
including high-need students. 2
‘‘(vi) A description of how the eligible 3
entity will, directly or in collaboration with 4
institutions of higher education or nonprofit 5
organizations, use the grant funds to imple-6
ment 1 or more of the following evidence- 7
based reforms or practices: 8
‘‘(I) Providing comprehensive aca-9
demic, career, and student services, 10
which may include mentoring, advis-11
ing, or case management services. 12
‘‘(II) Providing accelerated learn-13
ing opportunities, which may include 14
dual or concurrent enrollment pro-15
grams and early college high school 16
programs. 17
‘‘(III) Reforming course sched-18
uling or credit-awarding policies. 19
‘‘(IV) Improving transfer path-20
ways between the institution of higher 21
education, or eligible Indian entity, 22
and other institutions of higher edu-23
cation. 24
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‘‘(vii) A description of how the evi-1
dence-based reforms or practices carried out 2
pursuant to a grant under this subsection 3
will be sustained once the grant expires. 4
‘‘(D) E
VIDENCE-BASED STUDENT SUCCESS 5
PROGRAMS.—From the total amount appro-6
priated to carry out this subsection for a fiscal 7
year and not reserved under paragraph (4), the 8
Secretary shall reserve not less than 20 percent 9
to award grants to eligible entities with applica-10
tions that propose to include reforms or prac-11
tices— 12
‘‘(i) at least 1 of which is a tier 3 re-13
form or practice; and 14
‘‘(ii) the rest of which are tier 1 or tier 15
2 reforms or practices. 16
‘‘(E) R
EQUIRED USE OF FUNDS .—An eligi-17
ble entity that receives a grant under this section 18
shall use the grant funds to carry out the plans 19
submitted pursuant to subparagraph (C) and for 20
evidence-based reforms or practices for improv-21
ing retention and completion rates of students 22
that may include the following: 23
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‘‘(i) Student services to support reten-1
tion, completion, and success, which may 2
include— 3
‘‘(I) faculty and peer counseling; 4
‘‘(II) use of real-time data on stu-5
dent progress; 6
‘‘(III) improving transfer student 7
success; and 8
‘‘(IV) incentives for students to re- 9
enroll or stay on track. 10
‘‘(ii) Direct student support services, 11
including a combination of— 12
‘‘(I) tutoring, academic supports, 13
and enrichment services; and 14
‘‘(II) emergency financial assist-15
ance. 16
‘‘(iii) Efforts to prepare students for a 17
career, which may include— 18
‘‘(I) career coaching, career coun-19
seling and planning services, and ef-20
forts to lower student to advisor ratios; 21
‘‘(II) networking and work-based 22
learning opportunities to support the 23
development of skills and professional 24
relationships; 25
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‘‘(III) utilizing career pathways; 1
and 2
‘‘(IV) boosting experiences nec-3
essary to obtain and succeed in high- 4
wage, high-skilled, (as described in sec-5
tion 122 of the Carl D. Perkins Career 6
and Technical Education Act of 2006 7
(20 U.S.C. 2342)) or in-demand indus-8
try sectors or occupations (as defined 9
in section 3 of the Workforce Innova-10
tion and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 11
3102)). 12
‘‘(iv) Efforts to recruit and retain fac-13
ulty and other instructional staff. 14
‘‘(F) P
ERMISSIVE USE OF FUNDS .—From 15
the total amount appropriated to carry out this 16
subsection for a fiscal year, and not reserved 17
under paragraph (4) or subparagraph (D), the 18
Secretary may set aside— 19
‘‘(i) not more than 5 percent for ad-20
ministration, capacity building, research, 21
evaluation, and reporting; and 22
‘‘(ii) not more than 2 percent for tech-23
nical assistance to eligible entities. 24
‘‘(G) E
VALUATIONS.— 25
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‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—For the purpose of 1
improving the effectiveness of the evidence- 2
based reforms or practices carried out by el-3
igible entities pursuant to a grant under 4
this subsection, the Secretary shall make 5
grants to or enter into contracts with one or 6
more organizations to— 7
‘‘(I) evaluate the effectiveness of 8
such reforms or practices; and 9
‘‘(II) disseminate information on 10
the impact of such reforms or practices 11
in increasing completion and retention 12
activities of students, as well as other 13
appropriate measures. 14
‘‘(ii) I
SSUES TO BE EVALUATED .—The 15
evaluations required under clause (i) shall 16
measure the effectiveness of the evidence- 17
based reforms or practices carried out by el-18
igible entities pursuant to a grant under 19
this subsection in— 20
‘‘(I) whether such eligible entity 21
implemented the plans, and carried out 22
the activities, described in subpara-23
graph (C); and 24
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‘‘(II) comparing the completion 1
and retention rates of students who 2
participated in such reforms or prac-3
tices with the rates of students of simi-4
lar backgrounds who did not partici-5
pate in such reforms or practices. 6
‘‘(iii) R
ESULTS.—Not later than 18 7
months after the date of the enactment of 8
this subsection, the Secretary shall submit 9
to the authorizing committees a final report. 10
‘‘(H) G
RANT LIMIT.—An institution with 11
branch campuses that is an eligible entity may 12
only receive a grant under this subsection for 1 13
campus of such institution at a time. 14
‘‘(4) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 15
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 16
this subsection, $45,000,000, for each of fiscal years 17
2026 through 2031.’’; and 18
(2) by striking sections 742 through 745. 19
SEC. 322. REVERSE TRANSFER EFFICIENCY ACT. 20
Section 444(b)(1) of the General Education Provisions 21
Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g(b)(1)) is amended— 22
(1) in subparagraph (K)(ii), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 23
and inserting a semicolon; 24
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(2) in subparagraph (L), by striking the period 1
at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 2
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (L) the fol-3
lowing: 4
‘‘(M) an institution of postsecondary education 5
in which a student was previously enrolled, to which 6
records of postsecondary coursework and credits are 7
sent for the purpose of applying such coursework and 8
credits toward completion of a recognized postsec-9
ondary credential (as that term is defined in section 10
3 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act 11
(29 U.S.C. 3102)), upon condition that the student 12
provides written consent prior to receiving such cre-13
dential.’’. 14
SEC. 323. TRANSPARENT AND FAIR TRANSFER OF CREDIT 15
POLICIES. 16
Section 485(h) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 17
(20 U.S.C. 1092(h)) is amended— 18
(1) in paragraph (1)(A), by inserting ‘‘, includ-19
ing with respect to the acceptance or denial of such 20
credit’’ after ‘‘higher education’’; 21
(2) by redesignating paragraph (2) as para-22
graph (3); and 23
(3) by inserting after paragraph (1) the fol-24
lowing: 25
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‘‘(2) DENIAL OF CREDIT TRANSFER.—An institu-1
tion may not establish a transfer of credit policy 2
which denies credit earned at another institution 3
based solely on the source of accreditation of such 4
other institution, provided that such other institution 5
is accredited by an agency or association that is rec-6
ognized by the Secretary pursuant to section 496.’’. 7
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624 
118
TH
CONGRESS 
2
D
S
ESSION
 
H. R. 6951 
[Report No. 118–739] 
A BILL 
To lower the cost of postsecondary education for 
students and families. 
N
OVEMBER
18, 2024 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 
and ordered to be printed 
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