II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 2442
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend Federal Pell Grant
eligibility to certain short-term workforce programs.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JULY20, 2023
Mr. B
UDD(for himself and Mr. SCOTTof Florida) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu-
cation, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend
Federal Pell Grant eligibility to certain short-term work-
force programs.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Promoting Employ-4
ment and Lifelong Learning Act’’ or the ‘‘PELL Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY FOR WORKFORCE PELL 6
GRANTS. 7
Section 481(b) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 8
(20 U.S.C. 1088(b)) is amended— 9
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(1) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and (4) as 1
paragraphs (4) and (5), respectively; and 2
(2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-3
lowing: 4
‘‘(3)(A) A program is an eligible program for 5
purposes of the Workforce Pell Grants program 6
under section 401(k) only, if— 7
‘‘(i) it leads to a recognized educational 8
credential at an institution of higher education, 9
which may include a recognized postsecondary 10
credential, as defined in section 3 of the Work-11
force Innovation and Opportunity Act; 12
‘‘(ii) it is at least 150 clock hours of in-13
struction, but not more than 600 clock hours of 14
instruction, or an equivalent number of credit 15
hours, offered during a minimum of 8 weeks, 16
but not more than 15 weeks; 17
‘‘(iii) it is determined by an accrediting 18
agency or association recognized by the Sec-19
retary pursuant to section 496(a) to— 20
‘‘(I) provide an education aligned with 21
the requirements of in-demand industry 22
sectors or occupations, as defined in sec-23
tion 3 of the Workforce Innovation and 24
Opportunity Act; 25
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‘‘(II) meet the hiring requirements of 1
potential employers in the sectors or occu-2
pations described in subclause (I); 3
‘‘(III) have been offered by an institu-4
tion for not less than 1 year prior to a de-5
termination by such agency or association 6
under this paragraph; 7
‘‘(IV) have a verified completion rate 8
of at least 70 percent, calculated so as to 9
ensure that a student shall be counted as 10
a completion if the student completes the 11
program within 150 percent of the normal 12
time for completion; and 13
‘‘(V) have verified a job placement 14
rate of at least 70 percent; and 15
‘‘(iv) for each award year, the total amount 16
of the published tuition and fees of the program 17
for such year is an amount that does not exceed 18
the value-added earnings of students who re-19
ceived Federal financial aid under this title and 20
who completed the program 3 years prior to the 21
award year, as such earnings are determined by 22
calculating the difference between— 23
‘‘(I) the median earnings of such stu-24
dents, as adjusted by the State and metro-25
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politan area regional price parities of the 1
Bureau of Economic Analysis based on the 2
location of such program; and 3
‘‘(II) 150 percent of the poverty line 4
applicable to a single individual as deter-5
mined under section 673(2) of the Commu-6
nity Services Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 7
9902(2)) for such year. 8
‘‘(B)(i) In the case of a program that has not 9
previously participated in programs under this title 10
and is being determined eligible for the first time 11
under this paragraph, the Secretary may consider 12
such program to be an eligible program for purposes 13
of the Workforce Pell Grants program under section 14
401(k) for a provisional eligibility period that may 15
not exceed 3 years, if such program— 16
‘‘(I) subject to subclause (II), meets the 17
requirements of subparagraph (A); and 18
‘‘(II) in lieu of the determination of me-19
dian earnings under subclause (I) of subpara-20
graph (A)(iv), provides to the Secretary for pur-21
poses of meeting the requirements of subpara-22
graph (A)(iv), alternate earnings of students 23
who complete the program, which are statis-24
tically rigorous, accurate, comparable, and rep-25
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resentative of students who complete such pro-1
gram. 2
‘‘(ii) In a case in which the Secretary deter-3
mines that a program provided inaccurate earnings 4
data under clause (i)(II) for purposes of receiving 5
provisional eligibility under clause (i), such program 6
shall return to the Secretary any funds received 7
under this title during the period beginning on first 8
date of the provisional eligibility period and ending 9
on the date of determination under this clause. 10
‘‘(C) The Secretary shall establish an appeals 11
process to permit eligible programs for purposes of 12
the Workforce Pell Grants program under section 13
401(k) to submit alternate earnings data to comply 14
with subparagraph (A)(iv), provided that such data 15
are statistically rigorous, accurate, comparable, and 16
representative of students who receive a Workforce 17
Pell Grant and complete the eligible program.’’. 18
SEC. 3. DATA COLLECTION AND DISSEMINATION RELATED 19
TO WORKFORCE PELL. 20
Section 131 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 21
U.S.C. 1015) is amended by adding at the end the fol-22
lowing: 23
‘‘(i) D
ATACOLLECTION AND DISSEMINATIONRE-24
LATED TOWORKFORCEPELL.— 25
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, on an 1
annual basis, collect, verify, and make publicly avail-2
able on the College Scorecard or any similar suc-3
cessor website, the information required under 4
clause (ii), subclauses (IV) and (V) of clause (iii), 5
and clause (iv) of subsection (b)(3)(A) of section 6
481, with respect to each eligible program that 7
meets the requirements of section 481(b)(3), includ-8
ing— 9
‘‘(A) the length of the program (as meas-10
ured in clock hours, credit hours, or weeks); 11
‘‘(B) the number of students enrolled in 12
the eligible program during the most recent 13
academic year for which data is available; 14
‘‘(C) the percentage of students who enroll 15
in the eligible program and who complete the 16
eligible program within— 17
‘‘(i) 150 percent of the normal time 18
for completion of such program; and 19
‘‘(ii) 200 percent of the normal time 20
for completion of such program; 21
‘‘(D) the percentage of students who are 22
employed not later than 180 days after com-23
pleting the eligible program; and 24
‘‘(E) the percentage of individuals— 25
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‘‘(i) who have completed such eligible 1
program; and 2
‘‘(ii) 3 years after such completion, 3
whose median earnings exceed 150 percent 4
of the poverty line applicable to a single in-5
dividual, as determined under section 6
673(2) of the Community Services Block 7
Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)). 8
‘‘(2) E
XCEPTIONS.—Notwithstanding any other 9
provision of this subsection, if disclosure of any data 10
under paragraph (1) is prohibited under State or 11
Federal privacy laws or regulations, the Secretary 12
shall take such steps as the Secretary determines 13
necessary to make publicly available such data in ac-14
cordance with such laws and regulations.’’. 15
SEC. 4. WORKFORCE PELL GRANTS. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 401 of the Higher Edu-17
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a), as amended by sec-18
tion 703 of the FAFSA Simplification Act (title VII of 19
division FF of Public Law 116–260), is amended by add-20
ing at the end the following: 21
‘‘(k) W
ORKFORCEPELLGRANTSPROGRAM.— 22
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—For the award year begin-23
ning on July 1, 2024, and each subsequent award 24
year, the Secretary shall award grants (referred to 25
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as a ‘Workforce Pell Grants’) to eligible students 1
under paragraph (2) in accordance with this sub-2
section. 3
‘‘(2) E
LIGIBLE STUDENTS.—For award year 4
2024–2025 and each succeeding award year, to be 5
eligible to receive a Workforce Pell Grant under this 6
subsection for any period of enrollment, a student 7
shall meet the eligibility requirements for a Federal 8
Pell Grant under this section, except that the stu-9
dent— 10
‘‘(A) shall be enrolled, or accepted for en-11
rollment, in an eligible program— 12
‘‘(i) that leads to a recognized edu-13
cational credential at an institution of 14
higher education, which may include a rec-15
ognized postsecondary credential, as de-16
fined in section 3 of the Workforce Innova-17
tion and Opportunity Act; and 18
‘‘(ii) that meets the other require-19
ments described in section 481(b)(3); and 20
‘‘(B) may not have received a 21
postbaccalaureate degree. 22
‘‘(3) T
ERMS AND CONDITIONS OF AWARDS .— 23
The Secretary shall award Workforce Pell Grants 24
under this subsection in the same manner and with 25
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the same terms and conditions as the Secretary 1
awards Federal Pell Grants under subsection (b), ex-2
cept that a student who is eligible for a grant equal 3
to less than the amount of the minimum Federal 4
Pell Grant because the eligible workforce develop-5
ment program in which the student is enrolled or ac-6
cepted for enrollment is less than an academic year 7
(in hours of instruction or weeks of duration) may 8
still be eligible for a Workforce Pell Grant. 9
‘‘(4) P
REVENTION OF DOUBLE BENEFITS .—No 10
eligible student described in paragraph (2) may, for 11
the same period of enrollment, receive both a grant 12
under this subsection and a Federal Pell Grant 13
under subsection (b).’’. 14
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 15
subsection (a) shall take effect as if included in section 16
703 of the FAFSA Simplification Act (title VII of division 17
FF of Public Law 116–260; 134 Stat. 3191) and in ac-18
cordance with section 701(b) of such Act. 19
SEC. 5. ACCREDITING AGENCY DETERMINATION OF ELIGI-20
BILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE WORK-21
FORCE PELL GRANTS PROGRAM. 22
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 496(a)(4) of the Higher 23
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)(4)) is amend-24
ed— 25
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(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 1
the end; 2
(2) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by inserting ‘‘and’’ 3
at the end; and 4
(3) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(C) if such agency or association has or seeks 6
to include within its scope of recognition the evalua-7
tion of the quality of institutions offering an eligible 8
program for purposes of the Workforce Pell Grants 9
program (in accordance with section 481(b)(3)), 10
such agency or association shall, in addition to meet-11
ing the other requirements of this subpart, dem-12
onstrate to the Secretary that, with respect to such 13
eligible programs— 14
‘‘(i) the agency’s or association’s standards 15
include a process for determining if the institu-16
tion has the capability to effectively offer such 17
an eligible program; and 18
‘‘(ii) the agency or association requires a 19
demonstration that the program— 20
‘‘(I) satisfies the requirements of sub-21
paragraph (A)(iii) of section 481(b)(3); 22
and 23
‘‘(II) provides academic content, an 24
amount of instructional time, and com-25
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petencies to satisfy any applicable edu-1
cational requirement so that a student who 2
completes the program and seeks employ-3
ment is qualified to practice or work in the 4
sectors or occupations that the program 5
prepares students to enter;’’. 6
(b) A
DDITIONALNACIQI REVIEWMEETINGS.—For 7
the purpose of preparing for the implementation of the 8
Workforce Pell Grant program under section 401(k) of the 9
Higher Education Act of 1965 (as added by section 4), 10
in addition to the meetings required under section 11
114(d)(1) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 12
U.S.C. 1011c(d)(1)), the National Advisory Committee on 13
Institutional Quality and Integrity (as established by such 14
section 114) shall, through 2025, hold meetings to evalu-15
ate the additions to the scope of recognition of accrediting 16
agencies and associations with respect to an eligible pro-17
gram for purposes of the Workforce Pell Grants program 18
(in accordance with section 481(b)(3) of the Higher Edu-19
cation Act of 1965, as added by section 2). 20
(c) I
NTERIMACCREDITATIONAUTHORITY.— 21
(1) N
OTIFICATION.—Beginning on the date of 22
enactment of this Act, a qualified accrediting agency 23
or association which seeks to include within its scope 24
of recognition the evaluation of the quality of insti-25
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tutions offering eligible programs for the purposes of 1
the Workforce Pell Grants program, may include 2
within its scope of recognition the evaluation of such 3
institutions if the accrediting agency or associa-4
tion— 5
(A) submits to the Secretary a notification 6
of the agency’s or association’s intent to add 7
the evaluation of such institutions to its scope 8
of recognition; and 9
(B) includes with such notification an ex-10
planation of how the agency or association in-11
tends to meet the criteria under section 12
496(a)(4)(C) of the Higher Education Act of 13
1965 (as added by subsection (a)) with respect 14
to the evaluation of institutions for purposes of 15
the Workforce Pell Grants program. 16
(2) R
EVIEW OF SCOPE OF CHANGES .—Upon re-17
ceipt of a notification from an accrediting agency or 18
association under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 19
direct the National Advisory Committee on Institu-20
tional Quality and Integrity (as established by sec-21
tion 114 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 22
U.S.C. 1011c)) to evaluate, at the next available 23
meeting of such Committee, the addition to the 24
scope of recognition of the agency or association and 25
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to advise the Secretary with respect to whether the 1
agency or association meets the criteria under sec-2
tion 496(a)(4)(C) of the Higher Education Act of 3
1965 (as added by subsection (a)). 4
(3) T
ERMINATION OF INTERIM AUTHORITY .— 5
The interim authority under this subsection for an 6
agency or association to include within its scope of 7
recognition the evaluation of the quality of institu-8
tions offering eligible programs for the purposes of 9
the Workforce Pell Grants program shall terminate 10
on the earlier of— 11
(A) the date that is 5 years after the date 12
of enactment of this Act; or 13
(B) the date on which the Secretary deter-14
mines whether such agency or association meets 15
the criteria under section 496(a)(4)(C) of the 16
Higher Education Act of 1965 (as added by 17
subsection (a)). 18
(4) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 19
(A) The term ‘‘qualified accrediting agency 20
or association’’ means an accrediting agency or 21
association recognized by the Secretary under 22
section 496 of the Higher Education Act of 23
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b) that seeks, for the 24
first time, to add to its scope of recognition the 25
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evaluation of the quality of institutions offering 1
an eligible program for purposes of the Work-2
force Pell Grants program. 3
(B) The term ‘‘Workforce Pell Grants pro-4
gram’’ means the Workforce Pell Grant pro-5
gram under section 401(k) of the Higher Edu-6
cation Act of 1965 (as added by section 4). 7
SEC. 6. ORDERLY IMPLEMENTATION OF WORKFORCE PELL 8
GRANT PROGRAM. 9
The Secretary of Education shall have the authority 10
to take such steps as are necessary before July 1, 2024, 11
to provide for the orderly implementation on such date of 12
the amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965 13
made by this Act. 14
Æ
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