Us Congress Senate Bill SB1972 Latest Draft

                            II 
118THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION S. 1972 
To increase college transparency, and for other purposes. 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
JUNE14, 2023 
Mr. C
ASSIDY(for himself, Mr. CORNYN, Mr. GRASSLEY, Mr. SCOTTof South 
Carolina, and Mr. T
UBERVILLE) introduced the following bill; which was 
read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
and Pensions 
A BILL 
To increase college transparency, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Lowering Education 4
Costs and Debt Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 6
The table of contents of this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title. 
Sec. 2. Table of contents. 
TITLE I—COLLEGE TRANSPARENCY 
Sec. 101. Postsecondary student data system. 
Sec. 102. Repeal of prohibition on student data system. 
Sec. 103. Institutional requirements. 
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Sec. 104. Transition provisions. 
TITLE II—UNDERSTANDING THE TRUE COST OF COLLEGE 
Sec. 201. Institution Financial Aid Offer Form. 
Sec. 202. Mandatory form. 
TITLE III—INFORMED STUDENT BORROWING 
Sec. 301. Counseling and financial aid disclosures. 
Sec. 302. Annual requirement to manually enter loan amount. 
Sec. 303. Work study. 
TITLE IV—STREAMLINING ACCOUNTABILITY AND VALUE IN 
EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS 
Sec. 401. Loan repayment simplification and income-driven repayment reform. 
Sec. 402. Taxpayer and consumer protection on student loans. 
Sec. 403. Phase out of income-based repayment. 
TITLE V—GRADUATE OPPORTUNITY AND AFFORDABLE LOANS 
Sec. 501. Loan limits. 
TITLE I—COLLEGE 1
TRANSPARENCY 2
SEC. 101. POSTSECONDARY STUDENT DATA SYSTEM. 3
Section 132 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 4
U.S.C. 1015a) is amended— 5
(1) by redesignating subsection (l) as subsection 6
(m); and 7
(2) by inserting after subsection (k) the fol-8
lowing: 9
‘‘(l) P
OSTSECONDARYSTUDENTDATASYSTEM.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 11
‘‘(A) E
STABLISHMENT OF SYSTEM .—Not 12
later than 4 years after the date of enactment 13
of the Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act, 14
the Commissioner of the National Center for 15
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Education Statistics (referred to in this sub-1
section as the ‘Commissioner’) shall develop and 2
maintain a secure and privacy-protected post-3
secondary student-level data system in order 4
to— 5
‘‘(i) accurately evaluate student en-6
rollment patterns, progression, completion, 7
and postcollegiate outcomes, and higher 8
education costs and financial aid; 9
‘‘(ii) assist with transparency, institu-10
tional improvement, and analysis of Fed-11
eral aid programs; 12
‘‘(iii) provide accurate, complete, and 13
customizable information for students and 14
families making decisions about postsec-15
ondary education; and 16
‘‘(iv) reduce the reporting burden on 17
institutions of higher education, in accord-18
ance with section 104 of the Lowering 19
Education Costs and Debt Act. 20
‘‘(B) A
VOIDING DUPLICATED REPORT -21
ING.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 22
this section, to the extent that another provi-23
sion of this section requires the same reporting 24
or collection of data that is required under this 25
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subsection, an institution of higher education, 1
or the Secretary or Commissioner, shall use the 2
reporting or data required for the postsec-3
ondary student data system under this sub-4
section to satisfy both requirements. 5
‘‘(C) D
EVELOPMENT PROCESS .—In devel-6
oping the postsecondary student data system 7
described in this subsection, the Commissioner 8
shall— 9
‘‘(i) focus on the needs of— 10
‘‘(I) users of the data system; 11
and 12
‘‘(II) entities, including institu-13
tions of higher education, reporting to 14
the data system; 15
‘‘(ii) take into consideration, to the 16
extent practicable— 17
‘‘(I) the guidelines outlined in the 18
U.S. Web Design Standards main-19
tained by the General Services Admin-20
istration and the Digital Services 21
Playbook and TechFAR Handbook for 22
Procuring Digital Services Using 23
Agile Processes of the U.S. Digital 24
Service; and 25
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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 secu-15
rity categorization under the Federal 16
Information Processing Standards or 17
any relevant successor of such stand-18
ards; 19
‘‘(II) security requirements that 20
are consistent with the Federal agency 21
responsibilities in section 3554 of title 22
44, United States Code, or any rel-23
evant successor of such responsibil-24
ities; and 25
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‘‘(III) security requirements, 1
guidelines, and controls consistent 2
with cybersecurity standards and best 3
practices developed by the National 4
Institute of Standards and Tech-5
nology, including frameworks, con-6
sistent with section 2(c) of the Na-7
tional Institute of Standards and 8
Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 272(c)), or 9
any relevant successor of such frame-10
works; 11
‘‘(v) follow Federal data minimization 12
practices to ensure only the minimum 13
amount of data is collected to meet the 14
system’s goals, in accordance with Federal 15
data minimization standards and guide-16
lines developed by the National Institute of 17
Standards and Technology; and 18
‘‘(vi) provide notice to students out-19
lining the data included in the system and 20
how the data are used. 21
‘‘(2) D
ATA ELEMENTS.— 22
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 4 years 23
after the date of enactment of the Lowering 24
Education Costs and Debt Act, the Commis-25
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sioner, in consultation with the Postsecondary 1
Student Data System Advisory Committee es-2
tablished under subparagraph (B), shall deter-3
mine— 4
‘‘(i) the data elements to be included 5
in the postsecondary student data system, 6
in accordance with subparagraphs (C) and 7
(D); and 8
‘‘(ii) how to include the data elements 9
required under subparagraph (C), and any 10
additional data elements selected under 11
subparagraph (D), in the postsecondary 12
student data system. 13
‘‘(B) P
OSTSECONDARY STUDENT DATA 14
SYSTEM ADVISORY COMMITTEE .— 15
‘‘(i) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later 16
than 2 years after the date of enactment 17
of the Lowering Education Costs and Debt 18
Act, the Commissioner shall establish a 19
Postsecondary Student Data System Advi-20
sory Committee (referred to in this sub-21
section as the ‘Advisory Committee’), 22
whose members shall include— 23
‘‘(I) the Chief Privacy Officer of 24
the Department or an official of the 25
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Department delegated the duties of 1
overseeing data privacy at the Depart-2
ment; 3
‘‘(II) the Chief Security Officer 4
of the Department or an official of 5
the Department delegated the duties 6
of overseeing data security at the De-7
partment; 8
‘‘(III) representatives of diverse 9
institutions of higher education, which 10
shall include equal representation be-11
tween 2-year and 4-year institutions 12
of higher education, and from public, 13
nonprofit, and proprietary institutions 14
of higher education, including minor-15
ity-serving institutions; 16
‘‘(IV) representatives from State 17
higher education agencies, entities, 18
bodies, or boards; 19
‘‘(V) representatives of postsec-20
ondary students; 21
‘‘(VI) representatives from rel-22
evant Federal agencies; 23
‘‘(VII) individuals with expertise 24
in data privacy and security; and 25
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‘‘(VIII) other stakeholders (in-1
cluding individuals with consumer 2
protection and postsecondary edu-3
cation research). 4
‘‘(ii) R
EQUIREMENTS.—The Commis-5
sioner shall ensure that the Advisory Com-6
mittee— 7
‘‘(I) adheres to all requirements 8
under chapter 10 of title 5, United 9
States Code (commonly known as the 10
‘Federal Advisory Committee Act’); 11
‘‘(II) establishes operating and 12
meeting procedures and guidelines 13
necessary to execute its advisory du-14
ties; and 15
‘‘(III) is provided with appro-16
priate staffing and resources to exe-17
cute its advisory duties. 18
‘‘(C) R
EQUIRED DATA ELEMENTS .—The 19
data elements in the postsecondary student 20
data system shall include, at a minimum, the 21
following: 22
‘‘(i) Student-level data elements nec-23
essary to calculate the information within 24
the surveys designated by the Commis-25
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sioner as ‘student-related surveys’ in the 1
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data 2
System (IPEDS), as such surveys are in 3
effect on the day before the date of enact-4
ment of the Lowering Education Costs and 5
Debt Act, except that in the case that col-6
lection of such elements would conflict with 7
subparagraph (F), such elements in con-8
flict with subparagraph (F) shall be in-9
cluded in the aggregate instead of at the 10
student level. 11
‘‘(ii) Student-level data elements nec-12
essary to allow for reporting student en-13
rollment, persistence, retention, transfer, 14
and completion measures for all credential 15
levels separately (including certificate, as-16
sociate, baccalaureate, and advanced de-17
gree levels), within and across institutions 18
of higher education (including across all 19
categories of institution level, control, and 20
predominant degree awarded). The data 21
elements shall allow for reporting about all 22
such data disaggregated by the following 23
categories: 24
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‘‘(I) Enrollment status as a first- 1
time student, recent transfer student, 2
or other non-first-time student. 3
‘‘(II) Attendance intensity, 4
whether full-time or part-time. 5
‘‘(III) Credential-seeking status, 6
by credential level. 7
‘‘(IV) Race or ethnicity, in a 8
manner that captures all the racial 9
groups specified in the most recent 10
American Community Survey of the 11
Bureau of the Census. 12
‘‘(V) Age intervals. 13
‘‘(VI) Gender. 14
‘‘(VII) Program of study (as ap-15
plicable). 16
‘‘(VIII) Military or veteran ben-17
efit status (as determined based on 18
receipt of veteran’s education benefits, 19
as defined in section 480(c)). 20
‘‘(IX) Status as a distance edu-21
cation student, whether exclusively or 22
partially enrolled in distance edu-23
cation. 24
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‘‘(X) Federal Pell Grant recipient 1
status under section 401 and Federal 2
loan recipient status under title IV, 3
provided that the collection of such in-4
formation complies with paragraph 5
(1)(B). 6
‘‘(D) O
THER DATA ELEMENTS .— 7
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner 8
may, after consultation with the Advisory 9
Committee and provision of a public com-10
ment period, include additional data ele-11
ments in the postsecondary student data 12
system, such as those described in clause 13
(ii), if those data elements— 14
‘‘(I) are necessary to ensure that 15
the postsecondary data system fulfills 16
the purposes described in paragraph 17
(1)(A); and 18
‘‘(II) are consistent with data 19
minimization principles, including the 20
collection of only those additional ele-21
ments that are necessary to ensure 22
such purposes. 23
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‘‘(ii) DATA ELEMENTS.—The data ele-1
ments described in clause (i) may in-2
clude— 3
‘‘(I) status as a first generation 4
college student, as defined in section 5
402A(h); 6
‘‘(II) economic status; 7
‘‘(III) participation in postsec-8
ondary remedial coursework or gate-9
way course completion; or 10
‘‘(IV) other data elements that 11
are necessary in accordance with 12
clause (i). 13
‘‘(E) R
EEVALUATION.—Not less than once 14
every 3 years after the implementation of the 15
postsecondary student data system described in 16
this subsection, the Commissioner, in consulta-17
tion with the Advisory Committee described in 18
subparagraph (B), shall review the data ele-19
ments included in the postsecondary student 20
data system and may revise the data elements 21
to be included in such system. 22
‘‘(F) P
ROHIBITIONS.—The Commissioner 23
shall not include individual health data (includ-24
ing data relating to physical health or mental 25
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health), student discipline records or data, ele-1
mentary and secondary education data, an 2
exact address, citizenship status, migrant sta-3
tus, or national origin status for students or 4
their families, course grades, postsecondary en-5
trance examination results, political affiliation, 6
or religion in the postsecondary student data 7
system under this subsection. 8
‘‘(3) P
ERIODIC MATCHING WITH OTHER FED -9
ERAL DATA SYSTEMS.— 10
‘‘(A) D
ATA SHARING AGREEMENTS .— 11
‘‘(i) The Commissioner shall ensure 12
secure and privacy-protected periodic data 13
matches by entering into data sharing 14
agreements with each of the following Fed-15
eral agencies and offices: 16
‘‘(I) The Secretary of the Treas-17
ury and the Commissioner of the In-18
ternal Revenue Service, in order to 19
calculate aggregate program- and in-20
stitution-level earnings of postsec-21
ondary students. 22
‘‘(II) The Secretary of Defense, 23
in order to assess the use of postsec-24
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ondary educational benefits and the 1
outcomes of servicemembers. 2
‘‘(III) The Secretary of Veterans 3
Affairs, in order to assess the use of 4
postsecondary educational benefits 5
and outcomes of veterans. 6
‘‘(IV) The Director of the Bu-7
reau of the Census, in order to assess 8
the earnings outcomes of former post-9
secondary education students. 10
‘‘(V) The Chief Operating Officer 11
of the Office of Federal Student Aid, 12
in order to analyze the use of postsec-13
ondary educational benefits provided 14
under this Act. 15
‘‘(VI) The Commissioner of the 16
Social Security Administration, in 17
order to evaluate labor market out-18
comes of former postsecondary edu-19
cation students. 20
‘‘(VII) The Commissioner of the 21
Bureau of Labor Statistics, in order 22
to assess the wages of former postsec-23
ondary education students. 24
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‘‘(ii) The heads of Federal agencies 1
and offices described under clause (i) shall 2
enter into data sharing agreements with 3
the Commissioner to ensure secure and 4
privacy-protected periodic data matches as 5
described in this paragraph. 6
‘‘(B) C
ATEGORIES OF DATA .—The Com-7
missioner shall, at a minimum, seek to ensure 8
that the secure and privacy-protected periodic 9
data matches described in subparagraph (A) 10
permit consistent reporting of the following cat-11
egories of data for all postsecondary students: 12
‘‘(i) Enrollment, retention, transfer, 13
and completion outcomes for all postsec-14
ondary students. 15
‘‘(ii) Financial indicators for postsec-16
ondary students receiving Federal grants 17
and loans, including grant and loan aid by 18
source, cumulative student debt, loan re-19
payment status, and repayment plan. 20
‘‘(iii) Post-completion outcomes for all 21
postsecondary students, including earnings, 22
employment, and further education, by 23
program of study and credential level and 24
as measured— 25
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‘‘(I) immediately after leaving 1
postsecondary education; and 2
‘‘(II) at time intervals appro-3
priate to the credential sought and 4
earned. 5
‘‘(C) P
ERIODIC DATA MATCH STREAM -6
LINING AND CONFIDENTIALITY .— 7
‘‘(i) S
TREAMLINING.—In carrying out 8
the secure and privacy-protected periodic 9
data matches under this paragraph, the 10
Commissioner shall— 11
‘‘(I) ensure that such matches 12
are not continuous, but occur only pe-13
riodically at appropriate intervals, as 14
determined by the Commissioner to 15
meet the goals of subparagraph (A); 16
and 17
‘‘(II) seek to— 18
‘‘(aa) streamline the data 19
collection and reporting require-20
ments for institutions of higher 21
education; 22
‘‘(bb) minimize duplicative 23
reporting across or within Fed-24
eral agencies or departments, in-25
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cluding reporting requirements 1
applicable to institutions of high-2
er education under the Workforce 3
Innovation and Opportunity Act 4
(29 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.) and the 5
Carl D. Perkins Career and 6
Technical Education Act of 2006; 7
‘‘(cc) protect student pri-8
vacy; and 9
‘‘(dd) streamline the applica-10
tion process for student loan ben-11
efit programs available to bor-12
rowers based on data available 13
from different Federal data sys-14
tems. 15
‘‘(ii) R
EVIEW.—Not less often than 16
once every 3 years after the establishment 17
of the postsecondary student data system 18
under this subsection, the Commissioner, 19
in consultation with the Advisory Com-20
mittee, shall review methods for stream-21
lining data collection from institutions of 22
higher education and minimizing duplica-23
tive reporting within the Department and 24
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across Federal agencies that provide data 1
for the postsecondary student data system. 2
‘‘(iii) C
ONFIDENTIALITY.—The Com-3
missioner shall ensure that any periodic 4
matching or sharing of data through peri-5
odic data system matches established in 6
accordance with this paragraph— 7
‘‘(I) complies with the security 8
and privacy protections described in 9
paragraph (1)(C)(iv) and other Fed-10
eral data protection protocols; 11
‘‘(II) follows industry best prac-12
tices commensurate with the sensi-13
tivity of specific data elements or 14
metrics; 15
‘‘(III) does not result in the cre-16
ation of a single standing, linked Fed-17
eral database at the Department that 18
maintains the information reported 19
across other Federal agencies; and 20
‘‘(IV) discloses to postsecondary 21
students what data are included in the 22
data system and periodically matched 23
and how the data are used. 24
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‘‘(iv) CORRECTION.—The Commis-1
sioner, in consultation with the Advisory 2
Committee, shall establish a process for 3
students to request access to only their 4
personal information for inspection and re-5
quest corrections to inaccuracies in a man-6
ner that protects the student’s personally 7
identifiable information. The Commissioner 8
shall respond in writing to every request 9
for a correction from a student. 10
‘‘(4) P
UBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION .— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner 12
shall make the summary aggregate information 13
described in subparagraph (C), at a minimum, 14
publicly available through a user-friendly con-15
sumer information website and analytic tool 16
that— 17
‘‘(i) provides appropriate mechanisms 18
for users to customize and filter informa-19
tion by institutional and student character-20
istics; 21
‘‘(ii) allows users to build summary 22
aggregate reports of information, including 23
reports that allow comparisons across mul-24
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tiple institutions and programs, subject to 1
subparagraph (B); 2
‘‘(iii) uses appropriate statistical dis-3
closure limitation techniques necessary to 4
ensure that the data released to the public 5
cannot be used to identify specific individ-6
uals; and 7
‘‘(iv) provides users with appropriate 8
contextual factors to make comparisons, 9
which may include national median figures 10
of the summary aggregate information de-11
scribed in subparagraph (C). 12
‘‘(B) N
O PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE IN -13
FORMATION AVAILABLE .—The summary aggre-14
gate information described in this paragraph 15
shall not include personally identifiable informa-16
tion. 17
‘‘(C) S
UMMARY AGGREGATE INFORMATION 18
AVAILABLE.—The summary aggregate informa-19
tion described in this paragraph shall, at a min-20
imum, include each of the following for each in-21
stitution of higher education: 22
‘‘(i) Measures of student access, in-23
cluding— 24
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‘‘(I) admissions selectivity and 1
yield; and 2
‘‘(II) enrollment, disaggregated 3
by each category described in para-4
graph (2)(C)(ii). 5
‘‘(ii) Measures of student progression, 6
including retention rates and persistence 7
rates, disaggregated by each category de-8
scribed in paragraph (2)(C)(ii). 9
‘‘(iii) Measures of student completion, 10
including— 11
‘‘(I) transfer rates and comple-12
tion rates, disaggregated by each cat-13
egory described in paragraph 14
(2)(C)(ii); and 15
‘‘(II) number of completions, 16
disaggregated by each category de-17
scribed in paragraph (2)(C)(ii). 18
‘‘(iv) Measures of student costs, in-19
cluding— 20
‘‘(I) tuition, required fees, total 21
cost of attendance, and net price after 22
total grant aid, disaggregated by in- 23
State tuition or in-district tuition sta-24
tus (if applicable), program of study 25
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(if applicable), and credential level; 1
and 2
‘‘(II) typical grant amounts and 3
loan amounts received by students re-4
ported separately from Federal, State, 5
local, and institutional sources, and 6
cumulative debt, disaggregated by 7
each category described in paragraph 8
(2)(C)(ii) and completion status. 9
‘‘(v) Measures of postcollegiate stu-10
dent outcomes, including employment 11
rates, mean and median earnings, loan re-12
payment and default rates, and further 13
education rates. These measures shall— 14
‘‘(I) be disaggregated by each 15
category described in paragraph 16
(2)(C)(ii) and completion status; and 17
‘‘(II) be measured immediately 18
after leaving postsecondary education 19
and at time intervals appropriate to 20
the credential sought or earned. 21
‘‘(D) D
EVELOPMENT CRITERIA .—In devel-22
oping the method and format of making the in-23
formation described in this paragraph publicly 24
available, the Commissioner shall— 25
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‘‘(i) focus on the needs of the users of 1
the information, which will include stu-2
dents, families of students, potential stu-3
dents, researchers, and other consumers of 4
education data; 5
‘‘(ii) take into consideration, to the 6
extent practicable, the guidelines described 7
in paragraph (1)(C)(ii)(I), and relevant 8
successor documents or recommendations 9
of such guidelines; 10
‘‘(iii) use modern, relevant technology 11
and enhance and update the postsecondary 12
student data system with information, as 13
necessary to carry out the purpose of this 14
paragraph; 15
‘‘(iv) ensure data privacy and security 16
in accordance with standards and guide-17
lines developed by the National Institute of 18
Standards and Technology, and in accord-19
ance with any other Federal law relating to 20
privacy or security, including complying 21
with the requirements of subchapter II of 22
chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, 23
specifying security categorization under the 24
Federal Information Processing Standards, 25
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•S 1972 IS
and security requirements, and setting of 1
National Institute of Standards and Tech-2
nology security baseline controls at the ap-3
propriate level; and 4
‘‘(v) conduct consumer testing to de-5
termine how to make the information as 6
meaningful to users as possible. 7
‘‘(5) P
ERMISSIBLE DISCLOSURES OF DATA .— 8
‘‘(A) D
ATA REPORTS AND QUERIES .— 9
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 4 10
years after the date of enactment of the 11
Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act, 12
the Commissioner shall develop and imple-13
ment a secure and privacy-protected proc-14
ess for making student-level, non-person-15
ally identifiable information, with direct 16
identifiers removed, from the postsec-17
ondary student data system available for 18
vetted research and evaluation purposes 19
approved by the Commissioner in a man-20
ner compatible with practices for disclosing 21
National Center for Education Statistics 22
restricted-use survey data as in effect on 23
the day before the date of enactment of the 24
Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act, 25
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•S 1972 IS
or by applying other research and disclo-1
sure restrictions to ensure data privacy 2
and security. Such process shall be ap-3
proved by the National Center for Edu-4
cation Statistics’ Disclosure Review Board 5
(or successor body). 6
‘‘(ii) P
ROVIDING DATA REPORTS AND 7
QUERIES TO INSTITUTIONS AND STATES .— 8
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—The Commis-9
sioner shall provide feedback reports, 10
at least annually, to each institution 11
of higher education, each postsec-12
ondary education system that fully 13
participates in the postsecondary stu-14
dent data system, and each State 15
higher education body as designated 16
by the governor. 17
‘‘(II) F
EEDBACK REPORTS .—The 18
feedback reports provided under this 19
clause shall include program-level and 20
institution-level information from the 21
postsecondary student data system re-22
garding students who are associated 23
with the institution or, for State rep-24
resentatives, the institutions within 25
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•S 1972 IS
that State, on or before the date of 1
the report, on measures including stu-2
dent mobility and workforce outcomes, 3
provided that the feedback aggregate 4
summary reports protect the privacy 5
of individuals. 6
‘‘(III) D
ETERMINATION OF CON -7
TENT.—The content of the feedback 8
reports shall be determined by the 9
Commissioner in consultation with the 10
Advisory Committee. 11
‘‘(iii) P
ERMITTING STATE DATA QUE -12
RIES.—The Commissioner shall, in con-13
sultation with the Advisory Committee and 14
as soon as practicable, create a process 15
through which States may submit lists of 16
secondary school graduates within the 17
State to receive summary aggregate out-18
comes for those students who enrolled at 19
an institution of higher education, includ-20
ing postsecondary enrollment and college 21
completion, provided that those data pro-22
tect the privacy of individuals and that the 23
State data submitted to the Commissioner 24
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•S 1972 IS
are not stored in the postsecondary edu-1
cation system. 2
‘‘(iv) R
EGULATIONS.—The Commis-3
sioner shall promulgate regulations to en-4
sure fair, secure and privacy-protected, and 5
equitable access to data reports and que-6
ries under this paragraph. 7
‘‘(B) D
ISCLOSURE LIMITATIONS .—In car-8
rying out the public reporting and disclosure re-9
quirements of this subsection, the Commis-10
sioner shall use appropriate statistical disclo-11
sure limitation techniques necessary to ensure 12
that the data released to the public cannot in-13
clude personally identifiable information or be 14
used to identify specific individuals. 15
‘‘(C) S
ALE OF DATA PROHIBITED .—Data 16
collected under this subsection, including the 17
public-use data set and data comprising the 18
summary aggregate information available under 19
paragraph (4), shall not be sold to any third 20
party by the Commissioner, including any insti-21
tution of higher education or any other entity. 22
‘‘(D) L
IMITATION ON USE BY OTHER FED -23
ERAL AGENCIES.— 24
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Commissioner 1
shall not allow any other Federal agency to 2
use data collected under this subsection for 3
any purpose except— 4
‘‘(I) for vetted research and eval-5
uation conducted by the other Federal 6
agency, as described in subparagraph 7
(A)(i); or 8
‘‘(II) for a purpose explicitly au-9
thorized by this Act. 10
‘‘(ii) P
ROHIBITION ON LIMITATION OF 11
SERVICES.—The Secretary, or the head of 12
any other Federal agency, shall not use 13
data collected under this subsection to 14
limit services to students. 15
‘‘(E) L
AW ENFORCEMENT .—Personally 16
identifiable information collected under this 17
subsection shall not be used for any Federal, 18
State, or local law enforcement activity or any 19
other activity that would result in adverse ac-20
tion against any student or a student’s family, 21
including debt collection activity or enforcement 22
of immigration laws. 23
‘‘(F) L
IMITATION OF USE FOR FEDERAL 24
RANKINGS OR SUMMATIVE RATING SYSTEM .— 25
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•S 1972 IS
The comprehensive data collection and analysis 1
necessary for the postsecondary student data 2
system under this subsection shall not be used 3
by the Secretary or any Federal entity to estab-4
lish any Federal ranking system of institutions 5
of higher education or a system that results in 6
a summative Federal rating of institutions of 7
higher education. 8
‘‘(G) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing 9
in this paragraph shall be construed to prevent 10
the use of individual categories of aggregate in-11
formation to be used for accountability pur-12
poses. 13
‘‘(H) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION REGARDING 14
COMMERCIAL USE OF DATA .—Nothing in this 15
paragraph shall be construed to prohibit third- 16
party entities from using publicly available in-17
formation in this data system for commercial 18
use. 19
‘‘(6) S
UBMISSION OF DATA.— 20
‘‘(A) R
EQUIRED SUBMISSION.—Each insti-21
tution of higher education participating in a 22
program under title IV, or the assigned agent 23
of such institution, shall, for each eligible pro-24
gram, in accordance with section 487(a)(17), 25
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•S 1972 IS
collect, and submit to the Commissioner, the 1
data requested by the Commissioner to carry 2
out this subsection. 3
‘‘(B) V
OLUNTARY SUBMISSION .—Any insti-4
tution of higher education not participating in 5
a program under title IV may voluntarily par-6
ticipate in the postsecondary student data sys-7
tem under this subsection by collecting and sub-8
mitting data to the Commissioner, as the Com-9
missioner may request to carry out this sub-10
section. 11
‘‘(C) P
ERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFOR -12
MATION.—In accordance with paragraph 13
(2)(C)(i), if the submission of an element of 14
student-level data is prohibited under para-15
graph (2)(F) (or otherwise prohibited by law), 16
the institution of higher education shall submit 17
that data to the Commissioner in the aggregate. 18
‘‘(7) U
NLAWFUL WILLFUL DISCLOSURE .— 19
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful 20
for any person who obtains or has access to 21
personally identifiable information in connection 22
with the postsecondary student data system de-23
scribed in this subsection to willfully disclose to 24
any person (except as authorized in this Act or 25
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•S 1972 IS
by any Federal law) such personally identifiable 1
information. 2
‘‘(B) P
ENALTY.—Any person who violates 3
subparagraph (A) shall be subject to a penalty 4
described under section 3572(f) of title 44, 5
United States Code, and section 183(d)(6) of 6
the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 7
U.S.C. 9573(d)(6)). 8
‘‘(C) E
MPLOYEE OF OFFICER OF THE 9
UNITED STATES.—If a violation of subpara-10
graph (A) is committed by any officer or em-11
ployee of the United States, the officer or em-12
ployee shall be dismissed from office or dis-13
charged from employment upon conviction for 14
the violation. 15
‘‘(8) D
ATA SECURITY.—The Commissioner shall 16
produce and update as needed guidance and regula-17
tions relating to privacy, security, and access which 18
shall govern the use and disclosure of data collected 19
in connection with the activities authorized in this 20
subsection. The guidance and regulations developed 21
and reviewed shall protect data from unauthorized 22
access, use, and disclosure, and shall include— 23
‘‘(A) an audit capability, including manda-24
tory and regularly conducted audits; 25
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(B) access controls; 1
‘‘(C) requirements to ensure sufficient data 2
security, quality, validity, and reliability; 3
‘‘(D) confidentiality protection in accord-4
ance with the applicable provisions of sub-5
chapter III of chapter 35 of title 44, United 6
States Code; 7
‘‘(E) appropriate and applicable privacy 8
and security protection, including data retention 9
and destruction protocols and data minimiza-10
tion, in accordance with the most recent Fed-11
eral standards developed by the National Insti-12
tute of Standards and Technology; and 13
‘‘(F) protocols for managing a breach, in-14
cluding breach notifications, in accordance with 15
the standards of National Center for Education 16
Statistics. 17
‘‘(9) D
ATA COLLECTION.—The Commissioner 18
shall ensure that data collection, maintenance, and 19
use under this subsection complies with section 552a 20
of title 5, United States Code. 21
‘‘(10) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 22
‘‘(A) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDU -23
CATION.—The term ‘institution of higher edu-24
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•S 1972 IS
cation’ has the meaning given the term in sec-1
tion 102. 2
‘‘(B) M
INORITY-SERVING INSTITUTION.— 3
The term ‘minority-serving institution’ means 4
an institution of higher education listed in sec-5
tion 371(a). 6
‘‘(C) P
ERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFOR -7
MATION.—The term ‘personally identifiable in-8
formation’ means personally identifiable infor-9
mation within the meaning of section 444 of the 10
General Education Provisions Act.’’. 11
SEC. 102. REPEAL OF PROHIBITION ON STUDENT DATA SYS-12
TEM. 13
Section 134 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 14
U.S.C. 1015c) is repealed. 15
SEC. 103. INSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENTS. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Paragraph (17) of section 487(a) 17
of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094(a)) 18
is amended to read as follows: 19
‘‘(17) The institution or the assigned agent of 20
the institution will collect and submit data to the 21
Commissioner for Education Statistics in accordance 22
with section 132(l), the nonstudent related surveys 23
within the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data 24
System (IPEDS), or any other Federal institution of 25
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•S 1972 IS
higher education data collection effort (as designated 1
by the Secretary), in a timely manner and to the 2
satisfaction of the Secretary.’’. 3
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 4
subsection (a) shall take effect on the date that is 4 years 5
after the date of enactment of this Act. 6
SEC. 104. TRANSITION PROVISIONS. 7
The Secretary of Education and the Commissioner 8
for Education Statistics shall take such steps as are nec-9
essary to ensure that the development and maintenance 10
of the postsecondary student data system required under 11
section 132(l) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as 12
added by section 101 of this Act, occurs in a manner that 13
reduces the reporting burden for entities that reported 14
into the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System 15
(IPEDS). 16
TITLE II—UNDERSTANDING THE 17
TRUE COST OF COLLEGE 18
SEC. 201. INSTITUTION FINANCIAL AID OFFER FORM. 19
Section 484 of the Higher Education Opportunity 20
Act (20 U.S.C. 1092 note) is amended to read as follows: 21
‘‘SEC. 484. INSTITUTION FINANCIAL AID OFFER FORM. 22
‘‘(a) S
TANDARDFORMAT ANDTERMINOLOGY.—The 23
Secretary of Education, in consultation with the heads of 24
relevant Federal agencies, shall develop standard termi-25
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•S 1972 IS
nology and a standard format for financial aid offer forms 1
based on recommendations from representatives of stu-2
dents, veterans, servicemembers, students’ families, insti-3
tutions of higher education (including community colleges, 4
for-profit institutions, four-year public institutions, and 5
four-year private nonprofit institutions), financial aid ex-6
perts, secondary school and postsecondary counselors, 7
nonprofit organizations, and consumer groups. 8
‘‘(b) K
EYREQUIREDCONTENTS FOR OFFER 9
F
ORM.—The standard format developed under subsection 10
(a) shall include, in a consumer-friendly manner that is 11
simple and understandable, a form titled ‘Financial Aid 12
Offer’, which shall include the following items, with costs 13
listed first followed by grants and scholarships, clearly 14
separated from each other with separate headings: 15
‘‘(1) C
OST INFORMATION.— 16
‘‘(A) Information on the student’s esti-17
mated cost of attendance, including the fol-18
lowing: 19
‘‘(i) Total direct costs, including the 20
component totals each for— 21
‘‘(I) tuition and fees, as deter-22
mined under section 472 of the High-23
er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 24
1087ll); and 25
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(II) college-sponsored housing 1
and food costs (as determined based 2
on the costs for room and board 3
under such section). 4
‘‘(ii) Total estimated other expenses, 5
including— 6
‘‘(I) the component totals each 7
for housing and food costs for stu-8
dents who reside off-campus; and 9
‘‘(II) for all students, books, sup-10
plies, transportation, and miscella-11
neous personal expenses (which may 12
include costs of health insurance and 13
dependent care), as determined under 14
section 472 of the Higher Education 15
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087ll). 16
‘‘(B) An indication of the academic period 17
covered by the financial aid offer, and an expla-18
nation that the financial aid offered may 19
change for academic periods not covered by the 20
aid offer or by program. 21
‘‘(C) An indication of whether cost and aid 22
estimates are based on full-time or part-time 23
enrollment. 24
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(D) An indication, as applicable, about 1
whether the tuition and fees are estimated 2
based on the previous year, or are set, for the 3
academic period indicated in accordance with 4
subparagraph (B). 5
‘‘(2) G
RANTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS .—The aggre-6
gate amount of grants and scholarships by source 7
that the student does not have to repay, such as 8
grant aid offered under title IV of the Higher Edu-9
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.) and 10
grant aid offered through other Federal programs, 11
grant aid offered by the institution, grant aid of-12
fered by the State, and, if known, grant aid from an 13
outside source to the student for such academic pe-14
riod, including— 15
‘‘(A) a disclosure that the grants and 16
scholarships do not have to be repaid; and 17
‘‘(B) if institutional aid is included— 18
‘‘(i) the conditions under which the 19
student can expect to receive similar 20
amounts of such financial aid for each aca-21
demic period the student is enrolled at the 22
institution; and 23
‘‘(ii) whether the institutional aid 24
offer may change if grants or scholarships 25
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•S 1972 IS
from outside sources are applied after the 1
student receives the offer form, and, if ap-2
plicable, how that aid will change. 3
‘‘(3) N
ET PRICE.— 4
‘‘(A) The net price that the student, or the 5
student’s family on behalf of the student, is es-6
timated to have to pay for the student to attend 7
the institution for such academic period, equal 8
to— 9
‘‘(i) the cost of attendance as de-10
scribed in paragraph (1)(A) for the stu-11
dent for the period indicated in paragraph 12
(1)(B); minus 13
‘‘(ii) the amount of grant aid de-14
scribed in paragraph (2) that is included in 15
the financial aid offer form. 16
‘‘(B) A disclosure that the net price is an 17
estimate of the total expenses for the year and 18
not equivalent to the amount the student will 19
owe directly to the institution. 20
‘‘(4) L
OANS.— 21
‘‘(A) Information on any loan under part 22
D or part E of title IV of the Higher Education 23
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087a et seq.; 20 24
U.S.C. 1087aa et seq.) (except a Federal Direct 25
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•S 1972 IS
PLUS Loan under part D of that Act) that the 1
institution recommends for the student for the 2
academic period covered by the offer, which 3
shall be made— 4
‘‘(i) with clear use of the word ‘loan’ 5
to describe the recommended loan 6
amounts; and 7
‘‘(ii) with clear labeling of subsidized 8
and unsubsidized loans. 9
‘‘(B) A disclosure that such loans have to 10
be repaid and a disclosure that the student can 11
borrow a lesser or, if applicable, greater amount 12
than the recommended loan amount. 13
‘‘(C) A disclosure that the interest rates 14
and fees on such loans are set annually and af-15
fect total cost over time, and a link to a De-16
partment of Education website that includes 17
current information on interest rates and fees. 18
‘‘(D) A link to the Department of Edu-19
cation’s repayment calculator website for stu-20
dents with instruction that this website contains 21
customizable estimates of expected repayment 22
costs under different loan repayment plans. 23
‘‘(5) P
ROCESS FOR ACCEPTING OR DECLINING 24
AID AND NEXT STEPS.— 25
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(A) The deadlines and a summary of the 1
process (including the next steps) for— 2
‘‘(i) accepting the financial aid offered 3
in the financial aid offer form; 4
‘‘(ii) requesting higher loan amounts 5
if recommended loan amounts were in-6
cluded; and 7
‘‘(iii) declining aid offered in the 8
form. 9
‘‘(B) Information on when and how direct 10
costs to the institution must be paid. 11
‘‘(C) A disclosure that verification of finan-12
cial circumstances may require the student to 13
submit further documentation. 14
‘‘(D) Information about where a student or 15
the student’s family can seek additional infor-16
mation regarding the financial aid offered, in-17
cluding contact information for the institution’s 18
financial aid office and the Department of Edu-19
cation’s website on financial aid. 20
‘‘(6) A
DDITIONAL INFORMATION .—Any other 21
information the Secretary of Education, in consulta-22
tion with the heads of relevant Federal agencies, in-23
cluding the Secretary of the Treasury and the Direc-24
tor of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, 25
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•S 1972 IS
determines necessary (based on the results of the 1
consumer testing under paragraph (g)(2)) so that 2
students and parents can make informed loan bor-3
rowing decisions, which may include— 4
‘‘(A) the most recent cohort default rate, 5
as defined in section 435(m) of the Higher 6
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1085(m)) 7
with respect to an institution where more than 8
30 percent of enrolled students borrow loans to 9
pay for their education, and a comparison to 10
the national average cohort default rate; 11
‘‘(B) the percentage of students at the in-12
stitution who borrow student loans; 13
‘‘(C) the median loan debt at graduation 14
for students at the institution (clearly marked 15
as including only Federal loans if private loan 16
data are not available to be included); and 17
‘‘(D) any additional calculations deter-18
mined necessary for ensuring that students un-19
derstand full college costs, financial aid gaps, 20
and options for covering those gaps. 21
‘‘(c) O
THERREQUIREDCONTENTS FOR THE OFFER 22
F
ORM.—The standard form developed under subsection 23
(a) shall include, in addition to the information described 24
in subsection (b), the following information to be included 25
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•S 1972 IS
on the financial aid offer form in a concise format deter-1
mined by the Secretary of Education, in consultation with 2
the heads of relevant Federal agencies: 3
‘‘(1) At the institution’s discretion— 4
‘‘(A) additional options and potential re-5
sources for paying for the amount listed in sub-6
section (b)(3), such as tuition payment plans; 7
and 8
‘‘(B) a disclosure that Federal Direct 9
PLUS Loans or private education loans may be 10
available to cover remaining need, except that 11
the institution may not include an amount for 12
Federal Direct PLUS Loans or private edu-13
cation loans and must include a disclosure for 14
Federal Direct PLUS Loans that such loans 15
are subject to an additional application process, 16
and a disclosure that both types of loans have 17
to be repaid by the borrower, and may not be 18
eligible for all the benefits available for Federal 19
Direct Stafford Loans or Federal Direct Un-20
subsidized Stafford Loans. 21
‘‘(2) The following information relating to pri-22
vate student loans: 23
‘‘(A) A statement that students consid-24
ering borrowing to cover the cost of attendance 25
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•S 1972 IS
should consider available Federal student loans 1
prior to applying for private education loans, in-2
cluding an explanation that Federal student 3
loans offer generally more favorable terms and 4
beneficial repayment options than private loans. 5
‘‘(B) The impact of a proposed private 6
education loan on the student’s potential eligi-7
bility for other financial assistance, including 8
Federal financial assistance under title IV of 9
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 10
1070 et seq.). 11
‘‘(C) A statement explaining the student’s 12
ability to select a private educational lender of 13
the student’s choice. 14
‘‘(3) Information on work-study employment 15
opportunities, offered in accordance with part C of 16
title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 17
U.S.C. 1087–51 et seq.) including a disclosure that 18
the work-study aid offered is subject to the avail-19
ability of qualified employment opportunities and is 20
disbursed over time as earned by the student. Work- 21
study employment opportunities (or a student’s po-22
tential income based on those opportunities) shall 23
not be included in the category of financial aid de-24
scribed under subsection (b)(2). 25
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(d) ADDITIONALREQUIREMENTS FOR FINANCIAL 1
A
IDOFFERFORM.—The financial aid offer form shall 2
meet the following requirements: 3
‘‘(1) Include, in addition to the requirements 4
described in subsections (b) and (c), a concise sum-5
mary, in plain language, of— 6
‘‘(A) the terms and conditions of financial 7
aid recommended under paragraphs (2) and (4) 8
of subsection (b) and subsection (c)(3), and a 9
method to provide students with additional in-10
formation about such terms and conditions, 11
such as links to the supplementary information; 12
and 13
‘‘(B) Federal, State, or institutional condi-14
tions required to receive and renew financial aid 15
and a method to provide students with addi-16
tional information about these conditions, such 17
as links to the supplementary information. 18
‘‘(2) Clearly distinguish between the aid offered 19
under paragraphs (2) and (4) of subsection (b) and 20
subsection (c)(3), by including a subtotal for the aid 21
offered in each of such paragraphs and by refraining 22
from commingling the different types of aid de-23
scribed in such paragraphs. 24
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(3) Use standard terminology and definitions, 1
as described in subsection (e)(1) and use plain lan-2
guage where possible. 3
‘‘(4) If an institution’s recommended Federal 4
student loan aid offered in subsection (b)(4) is less 5
than the Federal maximum available to the student, 6
the institution shall provide additional information 7
on Federal student loans, including the types and 8
amounts for which the student is eligible in an at-9
tached document or web page. 10
‘‘(5) Use the standard offer form described in 11
subsection (e)(2). 12
‘‘(6) Include the standardized statement regard-13
ing the possible availability of Federal education 14
benefits, as established by the Secretary in accord-15
ance with subsection (e)(3). 16
‘‘(7) Include a delivery confirmation for elec-17
tronic financial aid offer forms, except that receipt 18
of the financial aid offer form shall not be consid-19
ered an acceptance or rejection of aid by the stu-20
dent. 21
‘‘(8) With respect to dependent students, any 22
reference to private education loans shall be accom-23
panied by— 24
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(A) information about the availability of, 1
and terms and conditions associated with, Fed-2
eral Direct PLUS Loans under section 455 of 3
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 4
1087e) for the student’s parents regardless of 5
family income; and 6
‘‘(B) a notification of the student’s in-7
creased eligibility for Federal student loans 8
under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 9
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.) if the student’s 10
parents are not able to borrow under the Fed-11
eral Direct PLUS Loan program. 12
‘‘(e) S
TANDARDINFORMATION ESTABLISHED BY 13
THESECRETARY.— 14
‘‘(1) S
TANDARD TERMINOLOGY .—Not later 15
than 3 months after the date of enactment of the 16
Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act, the Sec-17
retary of Education, in consultation with the heads 18
of relevant Federal agencies, including the Secretary 19
of the Treasury and the Director of the Consumer 20
Financial Protection Bureau, representatives of in-21
stitutions of higher education, nonprofit consumer 22
groups, students, and secondary school and higher 23
education guidance counselors, shall establish stand-24
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•S 1972 IS
ard terminology and definitions for the terms de-1
scribed in subsection (b). 2
‘‘(2) S
TANDARD FORM.— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Edu-4
cation shall develop multiple draft financial aid 5
offer forms for consumer testing, carry out con-6
sumer testing for such forms, and establish a fi-7
nalized standard financial aid offer form, in ac-8
cordance with the process established in sub-9
section (g) and the requirements of this section. 10
‘‘(B) S
EPARATE FINANCIAL AID OFFER 11
FORMS.—The Secretary may develop separate 12
financial aid offer forms for— 13
‘‘(i) undergraduate students and grad-14
uate students; and 15
‘‘(ii) first-time students and returning 16
students. 17
‘‘(3) A
DDITIONAL BENEFITS.—The Secretary of 18
Education, in consultation with the heads of relevant 19
Federal agencies, including the Secretary of the 20
Treasury, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Sec-21
retary of Defense, and the Director of the Consumer 22
Financial Protection Bureau, shall establish stand-23
ard language notifying students that they may be el-24
igible for education benefits (and where students can 25
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•S 1972 IS
locate more information about such benefits) includ-1
ing benefits in accordance with each of the following: 2
‘‘(A) Chapter 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, or 35 of 3
title 38, United States Code. 4
‘‘(B) Chapter 101, 105, 106A, 1606, 1607, 5
or 1608 of title 10, United States Code. 6
‘‘(C) Section 1784a, 2005, or 2007 of title 7
10, United States Code. 8
‘‘(f) S
UPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION; REMOVAL OF 9
I
NFORMATION.— 10
‘‘(1) Nothing in this section shall preclude an 11
institution from supplementing the financial aid 12
offer form with additional information if such addi-13
tional information supplements the financial aid 14
offer form and is not located on the financial aid 15
offer form, and provided such information utilizes 16
the same standard terminology identified in sub-17
section (e)(1). 18
‘‘(2) Nothing in this section shall preclude an 19
institution from deleting a required item if the stu-20
dent is ineligible for such aid. 21
‘‘(g) D
EVELOPMENT OF FINANCIALAIDOFFER 22
F
ORM.— 23
‘‘(1) D
RAFT FORM.—Not later than 9 months 24
after the date of enactment of the Lowering Edu-25
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•S 1972 IS
cation Costs and Debt Act, the Secretary of Edu-1
cation, in consultation with the heads of relevant 2
Federal agencies, including the Secretary of the 3
Treasury and the Director of the Consumer Finan-4
cial Protection Bureau, representatives of institu-5
tions of higher education, nonprofit consumer 6
groups, students, and secondary school and higher 7
education guidance counselors, shall design and 8
produce multiple draft financial aid offer forms for 9
consumer testing with postsecondary students or 10
prospective students. In developing that form, the 11
Secretary shall ensure— 12
‘‘(A) that the headings described in para-13
graphs (1) through (4) of subsection (b) are in 14
the same font, appear in the same order, and 15
are displayed prominently on the financial aid 16
offer form, such that none of that information 17
is inappropriately omitted or de-emphasized; 18
‘‘(B) that the other information required 19
in subsection (b) appears in a standard format 20
and design on the financial aid offer form; and 21
‘‘(C) that the institution may include a 22
logo or brand alongside the title of the financial 23
aid offer form. 24
‘‘(2) C
ONSUMER TESTING.— 25
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 9 1
months after the date of enactment of the Low-2
ering Education Costs and Debt Act, the Sec-3
retary of Education, in consultation with the 4
heads of relevant Federal agencies, shall estab-5
lish a process to submit the financial aid offer 6
form drafts developed under paragraph (1) for 7
consumer testing among representatives of stu-8
dents (including low-income students, first gen-9
eration college students, adult students, vet-10
erans, servicemembers, and prospective stu-11
dents), students’ families (including low-income 12
families, families with first generation college 13
students, and families with prospective stu-14
dents), institutions of higher education, sec-15
ondary school and postsecondary counselors, 16
and nonprofit consumer groups. 17
‘‘(B) P
ILOT.—During such consumer test-18
ing, the Secretary shall ensure that not less 19
than 16 and not more than 24 eligible institu-20
tions use the draft forms developed under para-21
graph (1), including institutions— 22
‘‘(i) that reflect a proportionate rep-23
resentation (based on the total number of 24
students enrolled in postsecondary edu-25
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•S 1972 IS
cation) of community colleges, for-profit 1
institutions, four-year public institutions, 2
and four-year private nonprofit institu-3
tions; and 4
‘‘(ii) that reflect geographic diversity. 5
‘‘(C) L
ENGTH OF CONSUMER TESTING .— 6
The Secretary of Education shall ensure that 7
the consumer testing under this paragraph lasts 8
no longer than 8 months after the process for 9
consumer testing is developed under subpara-10
graph (A). 11
‘‘(3) F
INAL FORM.— 12
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The results of con-13
sumer testing under paragraph (2) shall be 14
used in the final development of the financial 15
aid offer form. 16
‘‘(B) R
EPORTING REQUIREMENT .—Not 17
later than 3 months after the date the con-18
sumer testing under paragraph (2) concludes, 19
the Secretary of Education shall submit to Con-20
gress and publish on its website the final stand-21
ard financial aid offer form and a report detail-22
ing the results of such testing, including wheth-23
er the Secretary of Education added any addi-24
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•S 1972 IS
tional items to the standard financial aid offer 1
form pursuant to subsection (b)(6). 2
‘‘(4) A
UTHORITY TO MODIFY .—The Secretary 3
of Education may modify the definitions, terms, for-4
matting, and design of the financial aid offer form 5
based on the results of consumer testing required 6
under this subsection and before finalizing the form, 7
or in subsequent consumer testing. The Secretary 8
may also recommend additional changes to Con-9
gress.’’. 10
SEC. 202. MANDATORY FORM. 11
Part B of title I of the Higher Education Act of 1965 12
(20 U.S.C. 1011 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 13
the following: 14
‘‘SEC. 124. USE OF MANDATORY FINANCIAL AID OFFER 15
FORM AND TERMS. 16
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other pro-17
vision of law, each institution of higher education that re-18
ceives Federal financial assistance under this Act shall— 19
‘‘(1) use the financial aid offer form developed 20
under section 484 of the Higher Education Oppor-21
tunity Act (20 U.S.C. 1092 note) in providing 22
paper, mobile-optimized offers, or other electronic of-23
fers to all students who apply for aid and are accept-24
ed at the institution; and 25
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(2) use the standard terminology and defini-1
tions developed by the Secretary of Education under 2
subsection (e)(1) of that Act for all communications 3
from the institution related to financial aid offers. 4
‘‘(b) E
FFECTIVEDATES.—The requirements under 5
this section shall take effect at the start of the first award 6
year after the Secretary of Education finalizes the stand-7
ard terminology and form developed in accordance with 8
section 484 of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (20 9
U.S.C. 1092 note).’’. 10
‘‘(c) A
DMINISTRATIVEPROCEDURES.—Section 492 11
of the Higher Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1098a) shall not 12
apply with respect to regulations promulgated in accord-13
ance with this section.’’. 14
TITLE III—INFORMED STUDENT 15
BORROWING 16
SEC. 301. COUNSELING AND FINANCIAL AID DISCLOSURES. 17
Section 485(l) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 18
(20 U.S.C. 1092(l)) is amended— 19
(1) in the subsection heading, by striking ‘‘E
N-20
TRANCE’’; 21
(2) in paragraph (1)(A)— 22
(A) in the matter preceding clause (i), by 23
striking ‘‘a disbursement to a first-time bor-24
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•S 1972 IS
rower’’ and inserting ‘‘the first disbursement to 1
a borrower in each award year’’; and 2
(B) in the matter preceding subclause (I) 3
of paragraph clause (ii), by striking ‘‘may’’ and 4
inserting ‘‘shall’’; 5
(3) in paragraph (2)— 6
(A) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) 7
through (K) as subparagraphs (B) through (L); 8
(B) by inserting before subparagraph (B), 9
as so redesignated, the following: 10
‘‘(A) An explanation that the borrower will 11
need to affirmatively determine and manually 12
enter, in accordance with subsection (n), the 13
Federal loan amount that the borrower will bor-14
row (which may be equal to or less than the 15
Federal loan amount for which the borrower is 16
eligible) for each award year.’’; 17
(C) by striking subparagraph (G) and in-18
serting the following: 19
‘‘(G) Sample monthly repayment amounts, 20
under a standard repayment plan and under 21
the income-driven repayment plan that had the 22
highest enrollment in the previous year for bor-23
rowers (excluding parent borrowers), based 24
on— 25
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(i)(I) the median levels of indebted-1
ness, as appropriate, of— 2
‘‘(aa) undergraduate borrowers of 3
Federal Direct Stafford Loans or 4
Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loans 5
who were enrolled in the institution; 6
‘‘(bb) graduate borrowers of Fed-7
eral Direct Stafford Loans, Federal 8
Unsubsidized Stafford Loans, or Fed-9
eral Direct Plus Loans who were en-10
rolled in the institution; and 11
‘‘(cc) parent borrowers of Federal 12
Direct Plus Loans made on behalf of 13
dependent students who were enrolled 14
at the institution; 15
‘‘(II) the median cumulative indebted-16
ness of borrowers of loans described in 17
subclause (I) in the same program as the 18
borrower at the same institution; and 19
‘‘(ii) the median annual earnings for 20
individuals who attended the institution, as 21
described in subparagraph (N).’’; and 22
(D) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(M) A statement that the borrower does 24
not have to accept the full amount of loans for 25
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•S 1972 IS
which the borrower is eligible, and an expla-1
nation that loan eligibility calculations are de-2
termined based on a cost of attendance that 3
may include expenses such as housing, food, 4
and transportation. 5
‘‘(N) The most recent College Scorecard 6
information (or information from a similar suc-7
cessor website) that shows the median annual 8
earnings of students who received Federal stu-9
dent aid and who are no longer enrolled at the 10
institution and are working, at the time that is 11
10 years after the date of such students’ entry 12
to the institution— 13
‘‘(i) for individuals who were enrolled 14
in the institution; and 15
‘‘(ii) if available through the College 16
Scorecard (or similar successor website), 17
for individuals who were enrolled in the 18
borrower’s undergraduate or graduate pro-19
gram. 20
‘‘(O) The percentage of borrowers who at-21
tended the institution and have completed or 22
are no longer enrolled that are in active repay-23
ment (as compared to all borrowers who at-24
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•S 1972 IS
tended the institution and have completed or 1
are no longer enrolled). 2
‘‘(P) For undergraduate borrowers, the 3
completion rate of the institution, as available 4
through the College Scorecard (or similar suc-5
cessor website), for the most recent year for 6
which data are available. 7
‘‘(Q) A statement that— 8
‘‘(i) the statistics provided under this 9
paragraph are averages and median values 10
based on past years; 11
‘‘(ii) the borrower’s repayment 12
amounts, median earnings, and likelihood 13
of completion may vary from such statis-14
tics; and 15
‘‘(iii) as appropriate, parent borrowers 16
should be aware that information about 17
the median earnings, completion rate, and 18
percentage of borrowers in active repay-19
ment is based on data that excludes parent 20
borrowers. 21
‘‘(R) A statement in writing and in a form 22
the borrower may keep, of the annual percent-23
age rate applicable to the loan based on a 10- 24
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•S 1972 IS
year standard repayment plan, taking into ac-1
count— 2
‘‘(i) the amount of the loan; 3
‘‘(ii) the stated interest rate of the 4
loan; 5
‘‘(iii) the standard term for a loan of 6
the same type; 7
‘‘(iv) any fees or additional costs asso-8
ciated with the loan; and 9
‘‘(v) any capitalization of interest on 10
the loan.’’; and 11
(4) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(3) I
NFORMATION FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF 13
EDUCATION.—The Secretary shall provide institu-14
tions with the data and statistics necessary to enable 15
institutions to carry out this subsection.’’. 16
SEC. 302. ANNUAL REQUIREMENT TO MANUALLY ENTER 17
LOAN AMOUNT. 18
Section 485 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 19
U.S.C. 1092), as amended by section 301, is further 20
amended by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(n) A
NNUALREQUIREMENTTOMANUALLYENTER 22
L
OANAMOUNT.— 23
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In addition to the other re-24
quirements of this section and in accordance with 25
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•S 1972 IS
paragraph (2), each eligible institution shall ensure 1
that, for each award year, each borrower enrolled in 2
the institution who receives a Federal Direct Loan 3
(other than a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan) 4
and each parent borrower who is borrowing a Fed-5
eral Direct PLUS Loan made on behalf of a student 6
who is enrolled in the institution, for such year, shall 7
manually enter, either in writing or through elec-8
tronic means, the exact dollar amount of Federal Di-9
rect Loan funding that such borrower desires to bor-10
row for such year. 11
‘‘(2) M
ETHOD.—The eligible institution shall 12
ensure that the borrower carries out the activity de-13
scribed in paragraph (1)— 14
‘‘(A) in the case of a student borrower, in 15
the course of the process used by the institution 16
for students to accept a student loan award; 17
‘‘(B) prior to the institution certifying a 18
Federal Direct Loan (other than a Federal Di-19
rect Consolidation Loan), including a Federal 20
Direct PLUS Loan made on behalf of a stu-21
dent, for disbursement to a borrower; and 22
‘‘(C) in the case of a student borrower, 23
after ensuring that the student has completed 24
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•S 1972 IS
all of the counseling requirements under sub-1
section (l).’’. 2
SEC. 303. WORK STUDY. 3
Section 485 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 4
U.S.C. 1092), as amended by sections 301 and 302, is 5
further amended by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(o) W
ORKSTUDY.—If an institution provides a stu-7
dent or a prospective student with a financial aid award 8
notification that includes work study, the institution shall 9
ensure that the notification includes an explanation that 10
any work study funds are not directly awarded to the stu-11
dent or institution, and such amounts must be earned 12
through the student’s completion of work over time.’’. 13
TITLE IV—STREAMLINING AC-14
COUNTABILITY AND VALUE 15
IN EDUCATION FOR STU-16
DENTS 17
SEC. 401. LOAN REPAYMENT SIMPLIFICATION AND IN-18
COME-DRIVEN REPAYMENT REFORM. 19
Section 455 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 20
U.S.C. 1087e) is amended— 21
(1) in subsection (d)— 22
(A) in paragraph (1)— 23
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•S 1972 IS
(i) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 1
‘‘not later than June 30, 2024,’’ before ‘‘a 2
graduated’’; 3
(ii) in subparagraph (C), by inserting 4
‘‘not later than June 30, 2024,’’ before 5
‘‘an extended’’; 6
(iii) in subparagraph (D)— 7
(I) by inserting ‘‘not later than 8
June 30, 2024,’’ before ‘‘an income 9
contingent’’; and 10
(II) by striking ‘‘and’’ after the 11
semicolon; 12
(iv) in subparagraph (E)— 13
(I) by inserting ‘‘and not later 14
than June 30, 2024,’’ after ‘‘begin-15
ning on July 1, 2009,’’; and 16
(II) by striking the period at the 17
end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 18
(v) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(F) beginning on July 1, 2024, an income 20
contingent repayment plan known as the ‘Re-21
vised Pay As You Earn Repayment plan’, con-22
sistent with subsection (e)(9).’’; 23
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘in sub-24
paragraph (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (1)’’ 25
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•S 1972 IS
and inserting ‘‘in subparagraph (A) or (F) of 1
paragraph (1)’’; and 2
(C) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘not 3
later than June 30, 2024, and’’ after ‘‘The Sec-4
retary may provide,’’; and 5
(2) in subsection (e), by adding at the end the 6
following: 7
‘‘(9) R
EVISED PAY AS YOU EARN REPAYMENT 8
PLAN.— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 10
carry out a Revised Pay As You Earn Repay-11
ment plan in accordance with section 12
685.209(c) of title 34, Code of Federal Regula-13
tions, as in effect on December 17, 2015, ex-14
cept as otherwise provided in this paragraph as 15
follows: 16
‘‘(i) A borrower may complete loan re-17
habilitation on a defaulted loan through 18
making eligible payments in accordance 19
with this paragraph for 9 consecutive 20
months. 21
‘‘(ii) A borrower who no longer wishes 22
to repay under the Revised Pay As You 23
Earn Repayment plan may change only to 24
a standard repayment plan. 25
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(iii) In addition to that provided 1
under paragraph (5)(iv) of such section 2
685.209(c), a qualifying monthly payment 3
may also include a month for which the 4
borrower received— 5
‘‘(I) deferment under subsection 6
(f)(3) due to receiving treatment for 7
cancer; 8
‘‘(II) deferment under subsection 9
(f)(2) for rehabilitation training; 10
‘‘(III) deferment under sub-11
section (f)(2) for unemployment; 12
‘‘(IV) deferment under subsection 13
(f)(2) for economic hardship, includ-14
ing any period of deferment for Peace 15
Corps service; 16
‘‘(V) deferment under subsection 17
(f)(2) for military service; 18
‘‘(VI) deferment under subsection 19
(f)(2) for post-active duty service; 20
‘‘(VII) forbearance under section 21
428(c)(3)(A)(i)(III), for national serv-22
ice; 23
‘‘(VIII) forbearance under section 24
685.205(a)(7) of title 34, Code of 25
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•S 1972 IS
Federal Regulations, for National 1
Guard Duty; 2
‘‘(IX) forbearance under section 3
428(c)(3)(A)(i)(IV), for service for 4
which the borrower would qualify for 5
a partial repayment of his or her loan 6
under the Student Loan Repayment 7
Programs administered by the De-8
partment of Defense; or 9
‘‘(X) administrative forbearance 10
under paragraph (8) or (9) of section 11
685.205(b) of title 34, Code of Fed-12
eral Regulations. 13
‘‘(iv) A borrower shall be automati-14
cally enrolled in a Revised Pay As You 15
Earn Repayment plan for a loan at 75 16
days delinquent on such loan. 17
‘‘(v) A borrower who missed quali-18
fying payments during a forbearance or 19
deferment period not listed in clause (iii), 20
shall have the opportunity to provide a 21
back payment for the missed payments in 22
order have those payments counted toward 23
the 20-year or 25-year forgiveness period, 24
except there shall be no opportunity to pro-25
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•S 1972 IS
vide a back payment for periods of in- 1
school deferment. 2
‘‘(vi) For a borrower who is solely an 3
undergraduate borrower— 4
‘‘(I) who has borrowed $10,000 5
or less in total in loans under this 6
part, not including loan fees, the Sec-7
retary may determine that the bor-8
rower has met the loan forgiveness re-9
quirements after 120 payments under 10
the Revised Pay As You Earn Repay-11
ment plan; 12
‘‘(II) who has borrowed more 13
than $10,000 but $11,000 or less in 14
total in loans under this part, not in-15
cluding loan fees, the Secretary may 16
determine that the borrower has met 17
the loan forgiveness requirements 18
after 132 payments under the Revised 19
Pay As You Earn Repayment plan; 20
‘‘(III) who has borrowed more 21
than $11,000 but $12,000 or less in 22
total in loans under this part, not in-23
cluding loan fees, the Secretary may 24
determine that the borrower has met 25
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the loan forgiveness requirements 1
after 144 payments under the Revised 2
Pay As You Earn Repayment plan; 3
‘‘(IV) who has borrowed more 4
than $12,000 but $13,000 or less in 5
total in loans under this part, not in-6
cluding loan fees, the Secretary may 7
determine that the borrower has met 8
the loan forgiveness requirements 9
after 156 payments under the Revised 10
Pay As You Earn Repayment plan; 11
‘‘(V) who has borrowed more 12
than $13,000 but $14,000 or less in 13
total in loans under this part, not in-14
cluding loan fees, the Secretary may 15
determine that the borrower has met 16
the loan forgiveness requirements 17
after 168 payments under the Revised 18
Pay As You Earn Repayment plan; 19
‘‘(VI) who has borrowed more 20
than $14,000 but $15,000 or less in 21
total in loans under this part, not in-22
cluding loan fees, the Secretary may 23
determine that the borrower has met 24
the loan forgiveness requirements 25
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after 180 payments under the Revised 1
Pay As You Earn Repayment plan; 2
‘‘(VII) who has borrowed more 3
than $15,000 but $16,000 or less in 4
total in loans under this part, not in-5
cluding loan fees, the Secretary may 6
determine that the borrower has met 7
the loan forgiveness requirements 8
after 192 payments under the Revised 9
Pay As You Earn Repayment plan; 10
‘‘(VIII) who has borrowed more 11
than $16,000 but $17,000 or less in 12
total in loans under this part, not in-13
cluding loan fees, the Secretary may 14
determine that the borrower has met 15
the loan forgiveness requirements 16
after 204 payments under the Revised 17
Pay As You Earn Repayment plan; 18
‘‘(IX) who has borrowed more 19
than $17,000 but $18,000 or less in 20
total in loans under this part, not in-21
cluding loan fees, the Secretary may 22
determine that the borrower has met 23
the loan forgiveness requirements 24
after 216 payments under the Revised 25
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Pay As You Earn Repayment plan; 1
and 2
‘‘(X) who has borrowed more 3
than $18,000 but $19,000 or less in 4
total in loans under this part, not in-5
cluding loan fees, the Secretary may 6
determine that the borrower has met 7
the loan forgiveness requirements 8
after 228 payments under the Revised 9
Pay As You Earn Repayment plan. 10
‘‘(B) T
RANSFER OF BORROWERS IN RE -11
PAYMENT.—Notwithstanding any other provi-12
sion of this Act, on July 1, 2024, the Secretary 13
shall transfer each borrower who is in repay-14
ment on a loan made under this part under an 15
income contingent repayment plan pursuant to 16
subsection (d)(1)(D) to the Revised Pay As You 17
Earn Repayment plan under this paragraph.’’. 18
SEC. 402. TAXPAYER AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ON STU-19
DENT LOANS. 20
Section 487(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 21
(20 U.S.C. 1094(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 22
following: 23
‘‘(30)(A) The institution certifies that no funds 24
available under this title may be used by an under-25
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graduate student for enrollment in an educational 1
program offered by the institution that is described 2
in subparagraph (B). 3
‘‘(B) An educational program at an institution 4
is described in this subparagraph if the program is 5
a program— 6
‘‘(i) in the case of a program that awards 7
an associate’s degree or a lesser degree or cre-8
dential, in which the median earnings of stu-9
dents 6 years after the date of entry into the 10
program who are no longer enrolled in the pro-11
gram and are working is, for not less than 2 of 12
the 3 years preceding the date of the deter-13
mination, less than the median earnings of a 14
working adult who is aged 25 to 34 with only 15
a high school diploma or its recognized equiva-16
lent, as determined under subparagraph (C) 17
and in accordance with subparagraph (D); or 18
‘‘(ii) in the case of a program that awards 19
a bachelor’s degree, in which the median earn-20
ings of students 10 years after the date of entry 21
into the program who are no longer enrolled in 22
the program and are working is, for not less 23
than 2 of the 3 years preceding the date of the 24
determination, less than the median earnings of 25
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a working adult who is aged 25 to 34 with only 1
a high school diploma or its recognized equiva-2
lent, as determined under subparagraph (C) 3
and in accordance with subparagraph (D). 4
‘‘(C) The median earnings of a working adult 5
who is aged 25 to 34 with only a high school di-6
ploma or its recognized equivalent shall be based on 7
data from the Census Bureau— 8
‘‘(i) for the State in which the institution 9
is located; or 10
‘‘(ii) if fewer than 50 percent of the stu-11
dents enrolled in the institution reside in the 12
State where the institution is located, for the 13
entire United States. 14
‘‘(D) For any year for which the programmatic 15
cohort is fewer than 30 individuals, the Secretary 16
shall— 17
‘‘(i) first, aggregate additional years of 18
programmatic data in order to achieve a cohort 19
of at least 30 individuals; 20
‘‘(ii) second, aggregate additional cohort 21
years of programmatic data for degrees or cer-22
tificates of equivalent length in order to achieve 23
a cohort of at least 30 individuals; and 24
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(iii) if such data cannot be aggregated, 1
use an institution-based undergraduate-level 2
measure, in lieu of a programmatic measure. 3
‘‘(E) An educational program shall not lose eli-4
gibility under subparagraph (A) unless the institu-5
tion has had the opportunity to appeal the pro-6
grammatic median earnings of students working and 7
not enrolled determination. During such appeal, the 8
Secretary may permit the educational program to 9
continue to participate in a program under this title. 10
If an educational program continues to participate 11
in a program under this title, and the institution’s 12
appeal of the loss of eligibility is unsuccessful, the 13
institution shall pay to the Secretary an amount 14
equal to the amount of interest, and any related 15
payments made by the Secretary (or which the Sec-16
retary is obligated to make) with respect to loans 17
made under this title to students attending, or plan-18
ning to attend, that educational program during the 19
pendency of such appeal. 20
‘‘(31)(A) The institution certifies that no funds 21
available under this title may be used by a graduate 22
student for enrollment in an educational program of-23
fered by the institution that is described in subpara-24
graph (B). 25
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‘‘(B) An educational program at an institution 1
is described in this subparagraph if the program is 2
a program— 3
‘‘(i) in the case of a program that awards 4
a master’s degree or a lesser degree or creden-5
tial, in which the median earnings of students 6
6 years after the date of entry into the program 7
who are no longer enrolled in the program and 8
are working is, for not less than 2 of the 3 9
years preceding the date of the determination, 10
less than the median earnings of a working 11
adult who is aged 25 to 34 with only a bach-12
elor’s degree, as determined under subpara-13
graph (C) and in accordance with subparagraph 14
(D); or 15
‘‘(ii) in the case of program that awards a 16
professional degree or doctoral degree, in which 17
the median earnings of students 10 years after 18
the date of entry into the program who are no 19
longer enrolled in the program and are working 20
is, for not less than 2 of the 3 years preceding 21
the date of the determination, less than the me-22
dian earnings of a working adult who is aged 23
25 to 34 with only a bachelor’s degree, as de-24
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•S 1972 IS
termined under subparagraph (C) and in ac-1
cordance with subparagraph (D). 2
‘‘(C) The median earnings of a working adult 3
who is aged 25 to 34 with only a bachelor’s degree 4
shall be based on data from the Census Bureau— 5
‘‘(i) for the State in which the institution 6
is located; or 7
‘‘(ii) if fewer than 50 percent of the stu-8
dents enrolled in the institution reside in the 9
State where the institution is located, for the 10
entire United States. 11
‘‘(D) For any year for which the programmatic 12
cohort is fewer than 30 individuals, the Secretary 13
shall— 14
‘‘(i) first, aggregate additional years of 15
programmatic data in order to achieve a cohort 16
of at least 30 individuals; 17
‘‘(ii) second, aggregate additional cohort 18
years of programmatic data for degrees or cer-19
tificates of equivalent length in order to achieve 20
a cohort of at least 30 individuals; and 21
‘‘(iii) if such data cannot be aggregated, 22
use an institution-based graduate-level measure, 23
in lieu of a programmatic measure. 24
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‘‘(E) An educational program shall not lose eli-1
gibility under subparagraph (A) unless the institu-2
tion has had the opportunity to appeal the pro-3
grammatic median earnings of students working and 4
not enrolled determination. During such appeal, the 5
Secretary may permit the educational program to 6
continue to participate in a program under this title. 7
If an educational program continues to participate 8
in a program under title, and the institution’s appeal 9
of the loss of eligibility is unsuccessful, the institu-10
tion shall pay to the Secretary an amount equal to 11
the amount of interest, and any related payments 12
made by the Secretary (or which the Secretary is ob-13
ligated to make) with respect to loans made under 14
this title to students attending, or planning to at-15
tend, that educational program during the pendency 16
of such appeal.’’. 17
SEC. 403. PHASE OUT OF INCOME-BASED REPAYMENT. 18
Section 493C of the Higher Education Act of 1965 19
(20 U.S.C. 1098e) is amended— 20
(1) in subsection (b)(1), by inserting ‘‘who en-21
ters repayment on such loan before July 1, 2024, 22
and’’ after ‘‘a borrower of any loan made, insured, 23
or guaranteed under part B or D (other than an ex-24
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•S 1972 IS
cepted PLUS loan or excepted consolidation loan)’’; 1
and 2
(2) in subsection (e)— 3
(A) in the subsection heading by inserting 4
‘‘, 
ANDBEFOREJULY1, 2024’’ after ‘‘JULY1, 5
2014’’; and 6
(B) by inserting ‘‘, and before July 1, 7
2024’’ after ‘‘July 1, 2014’’. 8
TITLE V—GRADUATE OPPOR-9
TUNITY AND AFFORDABLE 10
LOANS 11
SEC. 501. LOAN LIMITS. 12
Section 455 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 13
U.S.C. 1087e) is amended— 14
(1) in subsection (a)— 15
(A) in paragraph (3)(A)— 16
(i) in the matter preceding clause (i), 17
by striking ‘‘part B’’ and inserting ‘‘part 18
B—’’; 19
(ii) beginning in the matter preceding 20
clause (i), by striking ‘‘for any period’’ and 21
all that follows through ‘‘professional stu-22
dent’’ and inserting the following: 23
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•S 1972 IS
‘‘(i) for any period of instruction be-1
ginning on or after July 1, 2012, a grad-2
uate or professional student’’; and 3
(iii) in clause (ii), by inserting ‘‘for 4
any period of instruction beginning on July 5
1, 2012, and ending on June 30, 2024 6
(subject to paragraph (4)(C)),’’ before ‘‘the 7
maximum annual’’; and 8
(B) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(4) G
RADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL ANNUAL 10
AND AGGREGATE LIMITS FOR UNSUBSIDIZED STAF -11
FORD LOANS BEGINNING JULY 1 , 2024.— 12
‘‘(A) A
NNUAL LIMITS BEGINNING JULY 1 , 13
2024.—Subject to subparagraph (C), beginning 14
on July 1, 2024, the maximum annual amount 15
of Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford 16
loans— 17
‘‘(i) a graduate student, who is not a 18
professional student, may borrow in any 19
academic year (as defined in section 20
481(a)(2)) or its equivalent shall be 21
$20,500; and 22
‘‘(ii) a professional student may bor-23
row in any academic year (as defined in 24
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section 481(a)(2)) or its equivalent shall be 1
$40,500. 2
‘‘(B) A
GGREGATE LIMITS BEGINNING JULY 3
1, 2024.—Subject to subparagraph (C), begin-4
ning on July 1, 2024, the maximum aggregate 5
amount of Federal Direct Unsubsidized Staf-6
ford loans— 7
‘‘(i) a graduate student, who is not a 8
professional student, may borrow is 9
$65,000, in addition to the amount bor-10
rowed for undergraduate education; and 11
‘‘(ii) a professional student may bor-12
row is $130,000, in addition to the amount 13
borrowed for undergraduate education. 14
‘‘(C) P
HASE OUT PROVISIONS .—Notwith-15
standing the date of the applicability of the lim-16
its set forth in this paragraph, an eligible grad-17
uate student, including a professional student, 18
who received a disbursement of a Federal Di-19
rect Unsubsidized Stafford loan after June 30, 20
2023, and before July 1, 2024, for the 2023– 21
2024 award year, may receive a Federal Direct 22
Unsubsidized Stafford loan for the 2024–2025 23
award year in amounts that are subject to the 24
annual and aggregate loan limits applicable 25
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•S 1972 IS
prior to July 1, 2024, if the borrower did not 1
graduate prior to the 2024–2025 award year. 2
‘‘(D) D
EFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 3
‘‘(i) G
RADUATE STUDENT .—The term 4
‘graduate student’ means a student en-5
rolled in a program at the 6
postbaccalaureate level, such as a 7
postbaccalaureate certificate, a master’s 8
degree, or a doctor’s degree. 9
‘‘(ii) P
ROFESSIONAL STUDENT .—The 10
term ‘professional student’ means a stu-11
dent enrolled in a doctor’s degree-profes-12
sional practice program. 13
‘‘(iii) P
OSTBACCALAUREATE CERTIFI -14
CATE; MASTER’S DEGREE; DOCTOR’SDE-15
GREE; DOCTOR’S DEGREE PROFESSIONAL - 16
PRACTICE.—The terms ‘postbaccalaureate 17
certificate’, ‘master’s degree’, ‘doctor’s de-18
gree’, and ‘doctor’s degree professional- 19
practice’ shall have the meaning provided 20
in the 2022–2023 glossary of the Inte-21
grated Postsecondary Education Data Sys-22
tem (OMB NO. 1859–0582 v. 30). 23
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‘‘(5) TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY TO MAKE 1
FEDERAL DIRECT PLUS LOANS TO GRADUATE AND 2
PROFESSIONAL STUDENTS .— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 4
other provision of law, for any period of instruc-5
tion beginning on or after July 1, 2024, a grad-6
uate student (including a professional student) 7
shall not be eligible to receive a Federal Direct 8
PLUS Loan under this part for enrollment in 9
a program of graduate or doctor’s degree pro-10
fessional-practice education. 11
‘‘(B) P
HASE OUT PROVISIONS .—Not later 12
than 30 days after the date of enactment of the 13
Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act, each 14
institution of higher education that enrolls 15
graduate students or professional students shall 16
notify prospective and enrolled graduate stu-17
dents and professional students that the Fed-18
eral Direct PLUS Loan program will end for 19
graduate students and professional students on 20
June 30, 2024. 21
‘‘(C) D
EFINITIONS.—The definitions in 22
paragraph (4)(D) shall apply to this paragraph. 23
‘‘(6) I
NSTITUTIONALLY DETERMINED LIMITS .— 24
Notwithstanding any other provision of this part, an 25
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•S 1972 IS
eligible institution (at the discretion of a financial 1
aid administrator at the institution) may prorate or 2
limit the amount of a loan a student who is enrolled 3
in a program of study at that institution for a pe-4
riod of instruction beginning on or after July 1, 5
2024, may borrow under this part for an academic 6
year, as long as any proration or limit is applied 7
consistently to all borrowers entering such program 8
of study.’’. 9
Æ 
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