I 119THCONGRESS 1 STSESSION H. R. 833 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a credit against tax for charitable donations to nonprofit organizations providing edu- cation scholarships to qualified elementary and secondary students. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY31, 2025 Mr. S MITHof Nebraska (for himself, Mr. OWENS, Mr. WALBERG, Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania, Mr. Y AKYM, Mr. LAHOOD, Ms. LETLOW, Mrs. MILLER- M EEKS, Mr. DONALDS, Ms. TENNEY, Mr. MOOREof Utah, Mr. F EENSTRA, Ms. MALLIOTAKIS, Mr. HERNof Oklahoma, Mr. LAWLER, Mr. F ONG, Mr. CAREY, Mr. HUDSON, Ms. SALAZAR, Mr. SCOTTFRANK- LINof Florida, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. WILSONof South Carolina, Mr. R OSE, Mr. WEBERof Texas, Mr. CISCOMANI, Mr. MOOLENAAR, Mr. A LLEN, Mr. DUNNof Florida, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. CLINE, Mr. MEUSER, Mr. T IMMONS, and Mr. BERGMAN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Education and Workforce, for a period to be subse- quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a credit against tax for charitable donations to nonprofit organizations providing education scholarships to quali- fied elementary and secondary students. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 833 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Educational Choice 2 for Children Act of 2025’’. 3 SEC. 2. TAX CREDIT FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCHOLAR-4 SHIP GRANTING ORGANIZATIONS. 5 (a) C REDIT FORINDIVIDUALS.— 6 (1) I N GENERAL.—Subpart A of part IV of sub-7 chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code 8 of 1986 is amended by inserting after section 25E 9 the following new section: 10 ‘‘SEC. 25F. QUALIFIED ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDU-11 CATION SCHOLARSHIPS. 12 ‘‘(a) A LLOWANCE OFCREDIT.—In the case of an in-13 dividual who is a citizen or resident of the United States 14 (as defined in section 7701(a)(9)), there shall be allowed 15 as a credit against the tax imposed by this chapter for 16 the taxable year an amount equal to the aggregate amount 17 of qualified contributions made by the taxpayer during the 18 taxable year. 19 ‘‘(b) L IMITATIONS.— 20 ‘‘(1) I N GENERAL.—The credit allowed under 21 subsection (a) to any taxpayer for any taxable year 22 shall not exceed an amount equal to the greater of— 23 ‘‘(A) 10 percent of the adjusted gross in-24 come of the taxpayer for the taxable year, or 25 ‘‘(B) $5,000. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 833 IH ‘‘(2) ALLOCATION OF VOLUME CAP .—The credit 1 allowed under subsection (a) to any taxpayer for any 2 taxable year shall not exceed the amount of the vol-3 ume cap allocated by the Secretary to such taxpayer 4 under section 3 of the Educational Choice for Chil-5 dren Act of 2025 with respect to qualified contribu-6 tions made by the taxpayer during the taxable year. 7 ‘‘(3) R EDUCTION BASED ON STATE CREDIT .— 8 The amount allowed as a credit under subsection (a) 9 for a taxable year shall be reduced by the amount 10 allowed as a credit on any State tax return of the 11 taxpayer for qualified contributions made by the tax-12 payer during the taxable year. 13 ‘‘(c) D EFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 14 ‘‘(1) E LIGIBLE STUDENT.—The term ‘eligible 15 student’ means an individual who— 16 ‘‘(A) is a member of a household with an 17 income which is not greater than 300 percent 18 of the area median gross income (as such term 19 is used in section 42), and 20 ‘‘(B) is eligible to enroll in a public ele-21 mentary or secondary school. 22 ‘‘(2) Q UALIFIED CONTRIBUTION .—The term 23 ‘qualified contribution’ means a charitable contribu-24 tion (as defined by section 170(c)) to a scholarship 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 833 IH granting organization in the form of cash or market-1 able securities. 2 ‘‘(3) Q UALIFIED ELEMENTARY OR SECONDARY 3 EDUCATION EXPENSE .—The term ‘qualified elemen-4 tary or secondary education expense’ means the fol-5 lowing expenses in connection with enrollment or at-6 tendance at, or for students enrolled at or attending, 7 a public or private elementary or secondary school 8 (including a religious elementary or secondary 9 school): 10 ‘‘(A) Tuition. 11 ‘‘(B) Curricula and curricular materials. 12 ‘‘(C) Books or other instructional mate-13 rials. 14 ‘‘(D) Online educational materials. 15 ‘‘(E) Tuition for tutoring or educational 16 classes outside of the home, including at a tu-17 toring facility, but only if the tutor or instruc-18 tor is not related to the student and— 19 ‘‘(i) is licensed as a teacher in any 20 State, 21 ‘‘(ii) has taught at— 22 ‘‘(I) a public or private elemen-23 tary or secondary school, or 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 833 IH ‘‘(II) an institution of higher 1 education (as defined in section 2 101(a) of the Higher Education Act 3 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)), or 4 ‘‘(iii) is a subject matter expert in the 5 relevant subject. 6 ‘‘(F) Fees for a nationally standardized 7 norm-referenced achievement test, an advanced 8 placement examination, or any examinations re-9 lated to admission to an institution of higher 10 education. 11 ‘‘(G) Fees for dual enrollment in an insti-12 tution of higher education. 13 ‘‘(H) Educational therapies for students 14 with disabilities provided by a licensed or ac-15 credited practitioner or provider, including oc-16 cupational, behavioral, physical, and speech-lan-17 guage therapies. 18 Such term shall include expenses for the purposes 19 described in subparagraphs (A) through (H) in con-20 nection with a home school (whether treated as a 21 home school or a private school for purposes of ap-22 plicable State law). 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 833 IH ‘‘(4) SCHOLARSHIP GRANTING ORGANIZA -1 TION.—The term ‘scholarship granting organization’ 2 means any organization— 3 ‘‘(A) which— 4 ‘‘(i) is described in section 501(c)(3) 5 and exempt from tax under section 501(a), 6 and 7 ‘‘(ii) is not a private foundation, 8 ‘‘(B) substantially all of the activities of 9 which are providing scholarships for qualified 10 elementary or secondary education expenses of 11 eligible students, 12 ‘‘(C) which prevents the co-mingling of 13 qualified contributions with other amounts by 14 maintaining one or more separate accounts ex-15 clusively for qualified contributions, and 16 ‘‘(D) which either— 17 ‘‘(i) meets the requirements of sub-18 section (d), or 19 ‘‘(ii) pursuant to State law, was able 20 (as of the date of the enactment of this 21 section) to receive contributions that are 22 eligible for a State tax credit if such con-23 tributions are used by the organization to 24 provide scholarships to individual elemen-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 833 IH tary and secondary students, including 1 scholarships for attending private schools. 2 ‘‘(d) R EQUIREMENTS FOR SCHOLARSHIPGRANTING 3 O RGANIZATIONS.— 4 ‘‘(1) I N GENERAL.—An organization meets the 5 requirements of this subsection if— 6 ‘‘(A) such organization provides scholar-7 ships to 2 or more students, provided that not 8 all such students attend the same school, 9 ‘‘(B) such organization does not provide 10 scholarships for any expenses other than quali-11 fied elementary or secondary education ex-12 penses, 13 ‘‘(C) such organization provides a scholar-14 ship to eligible students with a priority for— 15 ‘‘(i) students awarded a scholarship 16 the previous school year, and 17 ‘‘(ii) after application of clause (i), 18 any such students who have a sibling who 19 was awarded a scholarship from such orga-20 nization, 21 ‘‘(D) such organization does not earmark 22 or set aside contributions for scholarships on 23 behalf of any particular student, 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 833 IH ‘‘(E) such organization takes appropriate 1 steps to verify the annual household income and 2 family size of eligible students to whom it 3 awards scholarships, and limits them to a mem-4 ber of a household for which the income does 5 not exceed the amount established under sub-6 section (c)(1)(A), 7 ‘‘(F) such organization— 8 ‘‘(i) obtains from an independent cer-9 tified public accountant annual financial 10 and compliance audits, and 11 ‘‘(ii) certifies to the Secretary (at such 12 time, and in such form and manner, as the 13 Secretary may prescribe) that the audit de-14 scribed in clause (i) has been completed, 15 and 16 ‘‘(G) no officer or board member of such 17 organization has been convicted of a felony. 18 ‘‘(2) I NCOME VERIFICATION.—For purposes of 19 paragraph (1)(E), review of all of the following (as 20 applicable) shall be treated as satisfying the require-21 ment to take appropriate steps to verify annual 22 household income: 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 833 IH ‘‘(A) Federal and State income tax returns 1 or tax return transcripts with applicable sched-2 ules for the taxable year prior to application. 3 ‘‘(B) Income reporting statements for tax 4 purposes or wage and income transcripts from 5 the Internal Revenue Service. 6 ‘‘(C) Notarized income verification letter 7 from employers. 8 ‘‘(D) Unemployment or workers compensa-9 tion statements. 10 ‘‘(E) Budget letters regarding public as-11 sistance payments and Supplemental Nutrition 12 Assistance Program (SNAP) payments includ-13 ing a list of household members. 14 ‘‘(3) I NDEPENDENT CERTIFIED PUBLIC AC -15 COUNTANT.—For purposes of paragraph (1)(F), the 16 term ‘independent certified public accountant’ 17 means, with respect to an organization, a certified 18 public accountant who is not a person described in 19 section 465(b)(3)(A) with respect to such organiza-20 tion or any employee of such organization. 21 ‘‘(4) P ROHIBITION ON SELF-DEALING.— 22 ‘‘(A) I N GENERAL.—A scholarship grant-23 ing organization may not award a scholarship 24 to any disqualified person. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 833 IH ‘‘(B) DISQUALIFIED PERSON .—For pur-1 poses of this paragraph, a disqualified person 2 shall be determined pursuant to rules similar to 3 the rules of section 4946. 4 ‘‘(e) D ENIAL OFDOUBLEBENEFIT.—Any qualified 5 contribution for which a credit is allowed under this sec-6 tion shall not be taken into account as a charitable con-7 tribution for purposes of section 170. 8 ‘‘(f) C ARRYFORWARD OF UNUSEDCREDIT.— 9 ‘‘(1) I N GENERAL.—If the credit allowable 10 under subsection (a) for any taxable year exceeds 11 the limitation imposed by section 26(a) for such tax-12 able year reduced by the sum of the credits allowable 13 under this subpart (other than this section, section 14 23, and section 25D), such excess shall be carried to 15 the succeeding taxable year and added to the credit 16 allowable under subsection (a) for such taxable year. 17 ‘‘(2) L IMITATION.—No credit may be carried 18 forward under this subsection to any taxable year 19 following the fifth taxable year after the taxable year 20 in which the credit arose. For purposes of the pre-21 ceding sentence, credits shall be treated as used on 22 a first-in first-out basis.’’. 23 (2) C ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 833 IH (A) Section 25(e)(1)(C) of such Code is 1 amended by striking ‘‘and 25D’’ and inserting 2 ‘‘25D, and 25F’’. 3 (B) The table of sections for subpart A of 4 part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 of such 5 Code is amended by inserting after the item re-6 lating to section 25E the following new item: 7 ‘‘Sec. 25F. Qualified elementary and secondary education scholarships.’’. (b) CREDIT FORCORPORATIONS.— 8 (1) I N GENERAL.—Subpart D of part IV of 9 subchapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue 10 Code of 1986 is amended by adding after section 11 45AA the following: 12 ‘‘SEC. 45BB. CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCHOLARSHIP GRANTING 13 ORGANIZATIONS. 14 ‘‘(a) G ENERALRULE.—For purposes of section 38, 15 in the case of a corporation, the education scholarship 16 credit determined under this section for the taxable year 17 is the aggregate amount of qualified contributions for the 18 taxable year. 19 ‘‘(b) A MOUNT OFCREDIT.—The credit allowed under 20 subsection (a) for any taxable year shall not exceed 5 per-21 cent of the taxable income (as defined in section 22 170(b)(2)(D)) of the corporation for such taxable year. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 12 •HR 833 IH ‘‘(c) QUALIFIEDCONTRIBUTIONS.—For purposes of 1 this section, the term ‘qualified contribution’ has the 2 meaning given such term under section 25F. 3 ‘‘(d) D ENIAL OFDOUBLEBENEFIT.—No deduction 4 shall be allowed under any provision of this chapter for 5 any expense for which a credit is allowed under this sec-6 tion. 7 ‘‘(e) A PPLICATION OF VOLUMECAP.—A qualified 8 contribution shall be taken into account under this section 9 only if such contribution is not in excess of the volume 10 cap established under section 3 of the Educational Choice 11 for Children Act of 2025.’’. 12 (2) C ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Section 13 38(b) of such Code is amended by striking ‘‘plus’’ at 14 the end of paragraph (40), by striking the period 15 and inserting ‘‘, plus’’ at the end of paragraph (41), 16 and by adding at the end the following new para-17 graph: 18 ‘‘(42) the education scholarship credit deter-19 mined under section 45BB(a).’’. 20 (3) C LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sec-21 tions for subpart D of part IV of subchapter A of 22 chapter 1 of such Code is amended by adding at the 23 end the following new item: 24 ‘‘Sec. 45BB. Contributions to scholarship granting organizations.’’. VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6211 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 13 •HR 833 IH (c) FAILURE OFSCHOLARSHIPGRANTINGORGANI-1 ZATIONSTOMAKEDISTRIBUTIONS.— 2 (1) I N GENERAL.—Chapter 42 of such Code is 3 amended by adding at the end the following new 4 subchapter: 5 ‘‘Subchapter I—Scholarship Granting 6 Organizations 7 ‘‘Sec. 4969. Failure to distribute receipts. ‘‘SEC. 4969. FAILURE TO DISTRIBUTE RECEIPTS. 8 ‘‘(a) I NGENERAL.—In the case of any scholarship 9 granting organization (as defined in section 25F) which 10 has been determined by the Secretary to have failed to 11 satisfy the requirement under subsection (b) for any tax-12 able year, any contribution made to such organization dur-13 ing the first taxable year beginning after the date of such 14 determination shall not be treated as a qualified contribu-15 tion (as defined in section 25F(c)(2)) for purposes of sec-16 tions 25F and 45BB. 17 ‘‘(b) R EQUIREMENT.—The requirement described in 18 this subsection is that the amount of receipts of the schol-19 arship granting organization for the taxable year which 20 are distributed before the distribution deadline with re-21 spect to such receipts shall not be less than the required 22 distribution amount with respect to such taxable year. 23 ‘‘(c) D EFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 14 •HR 833 IH ‘‘(1) REQUIRED DISTRIBUTION AMOUNT .— 1 ‘‘(A) I N GENERAL.—The required distribu-2 tion amount with respect to a taxable year is 3 the amount equal to 100 percent of the total re-4 ceipts of the scholarship granting organization 5 for such taxable year— 6 ‘‘(i) reduced by the sum of such re-7 ceipts that are retained for reasonable ad-8 ministrative expenses for the taxable year 9 or are carried to the succeeding taxable 10 year under subparagraph (C), and 11 ‘‘(ii) increased by the amount of the 12 carryover under subparagraph (C) from 13 the preceding taxable year. 14 ‘‘(B) S AFE HARBOR FOR REASONABLE AD -15 MINISTRATIVE EXPENSES .—For purposes of 16 subparagraph (A)(i), if the percentage of total 17 receipts of a scholarship granting organization 18 for a taxable year which are used for adminis-19 trative purposes is equal to or less than 10 per-20 cent, such expenses shall be deemed to be rea-21 sonable for purposes of such subparagraph. 22 ‘‘(C) C ARRYOVER.—With respect to the 23 amount of the total receipts of a scholarship 24 granting organization with respect to any tax-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 15 •HR 833 IH able year, an amount not greater than 15 per-1 cent of such amount may, at the election of 2 such organization, be carried to the succeeding 3 taxable year. 4 ‘‘(2) D ISTRIBUTIONS.—The term ‘distribution’ 5 includes amounts which are formally committed but 6 not distributed. A formal commitment described in 7 the preceding sentence may include contributions set 8 aside for eligible students for more than one year. 9 ‘‘(3) D ISTRIBUTION DEADLINE .—The distribu-10 tion deadline with respect to receipts for a taxable 11 year is the first day of the third taxable year fol-12 lowing the taxable year in which such receipts are 13 received by the scholarship granting organization.’’. 14 (2) C LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sub-15 chapters for chapter 42 of such Code is amended by 16 adding at the end the following new item: 17 ‘‘SUBCHAPTER I. SCHOLARSHIP GRANTING ORGANIZATIONS ’’. (d) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 18 this section shall apply to taxable years ending after De-19 cember 31, 2025. 20 SEC. 3. VOLUME CAP. 21 (a) I NGENERAL.—For purposes of sections 22 25F(b)(2) and 45BB(e) of the Internal Revenue Code of 23 1986 (as added by this Act), the volume cap applicable 24 under this section shall be $10,000,000,000 for calendar 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 16 •HR 833 IH year 2026 and each subsequent year thereafter. Such 1 amount shall be allocated by the Secretary as provided in 2 subsection (b) to taxpayers with respect to qualified con-3 tributions made by such taxpayers, except that 10 percent 4 of such amount shall be divided evenly among the States, 5 and shall be available with respect to— 6 (1) individuals residing in such States to claim 7 the credit allowed under section 25F of the Internal 8 Revenue Code of 1986, and 9 (2) corporations created or organized in such 10 State to claim the credit determined under section 11 45BB of such Code. 12 (b) F IRST-COME, FIRST-SERVE.—For purposes of 13 applying the volume cap under this section, such volume 14 cap for any calendar year shall be allocated by the Sec-15 retary on a first-come, first-serve basis, as determined 16 based on the time (during such calendar year) at which 17 the taxpayer made the qualified contribution with respect 18 to which the allocation is made. The Secretary shall not 19 make any allocation of volume cap for any calendar year 20 after December 31 of such calendar year. 21 (c) R EAL-TIMEINFORMATION.—For purposes of this 22 section, the Secretary shall develop a system to track the 23 amount of qualified contributions made during the cal-24 endar year for which a credit may be claimed under sec-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 17 •HR 833 IH tion 25F or 45BB of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 1 with such information to be updated in real time. 2 (d) A NNUALINCREASES.— 3 (1) I N GENERAL.—In the case of the calendar 4 year after a high use calendar year, the dollar 5 amount otherwise in effect under subsection (a) for 6 such calendar year shall be equal to 105 percent of 7 the dollar amount in effect for such high use cal-8 endar year. 9 (2) H IGH USE CALENDAR YEAR .—For purposes 10 of this subsection, the term ‘‘high use calendar 11 year’’ means any calendar year for which 90 percent 12 or more of the volume cap in effect for such cal-13 endar year under subsection (a) is allocated to tax-14 payers. 15 (3) P REVENTION OF DECREASES IN ANNUAL 16 VOLUME CAP.—The volume cap in effect under sub-17 section (a) for any calendar year shall not be less 18 than the volume cap in effect under such subsection 19 for the preceding calendar year. 20 (4) P UBLICATION OF ANNUAL VOLUME CAP .— 21 The Secretary shall make publicly available the dol-22 lar amount of the volume cap in effect under sub-23 section (a) for each calendar year. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 18 •HR 833 IH (e) STATES.—For purposes of this section, the term 1 ‘‘State’’ includes the District of Columbia. 2 SEC. 4. EXEMPTION FROM GROSS INCOME FOR SCHOLAR-3 SHIPS FOR QUALIFIED ELEMENTARY OR SEC-4 ONDARY EDUCATION EXPENSES OF ELIGIBLE 5 STUDENTS. 6 (a) I NGENERAL.—Part III of subchapter B of chap-7 ter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended 8 by inserting before section 140 the following new section: 9 ‘‘SEC. 139J. SCHOLARSHIPS FOR QUALIFIED ELEMENTARY 10 OR SECONDARY EDUCATION EXPENSES OF 11 ELIGIBLE STUDENTS. 12 ‘‘(a) I NGENERAL.—In the case of an individual, 13 gross income shall not include any amounts provided to 14 any dependent of such individual pursuant to a scholar-15 ship for qualified elementary or secondary education ex-16 penses of an eligible student which is provided by a schol-17 arship granting organization. 18 ‘‘(b) D EFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘quali-19 fied elementary or secondary education expense’, ‘eligible 20 student’, and ‘scholarship granting organization’ have the 21 same meaning given such terms under section 25F(c).’’. 22 (b) C ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—The table of sec-23 tions for part III of subchapter B of chapter 1 of the In-24 ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting be-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 19 •HR 833 IH fore the item relating to section 140 the following new 1 item: 2 ‘‘Sec. 139J. Scholarships for qualified elementary or secondary education ex- penses of eligible students.’’. (c) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 3 this section shall apply to amounts received after Decem-4 ber 31, 2025, in taxable years ending after such date. 5 SEC. 5. ORGANIZATIONAL AND PARENTAL AUTONOMY. 6 (a) P ROHIBITION OFCONTROLOVERSCHOLARSHIP 7 O RGANIZATIONS.— 8 (1) I N GENERAL.— 9 (A) T REATMENT.—A scholarship granting 10 organization shall not, by virtue of participation 11 under any provision of this Act or any amend-12 ment made by this Act, be regarded as acting 13 on behalf of any governmental entity. 14 (B) N O GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL .—Noth-15 ing in this Act, or any amendment made by this 16 Act, shall be construed to permit, allow, encour-17 age, or authorize any Federal, State, or local 18 government entity, or officer or employee there-19 of, to mandate, direct, or control any aspect of 20 any scholarship granting organization. 21 (C) M AXIMUM FREEDOM .—To the extent 22 permissible by law, this Act, and any amend-23 ment made by this Act, shall be construed to 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00019 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 20 •HR 833 IH allow scholarship granting organizations max-1 imum freedom to provide for the needs of the 2 participants without governmental control. 3 (2) P ROHIBITION OF CONTROL OVER NON -PUB-4 LIC SCHOOLS.— 5 (A) N O GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL .—Noth-6 ing in this Act, or any amendment made by this 7 Act, shall be construed to permit, allow, encour-8 age, or authorize any Federal, State, or local 9 government entity, or officer or employee there-10 of, to mandate, direct, or control any aspect of 11 any private or religious elementary or secondary 12 education institution. 13 (B) N O EXCLUSION OF PRIVATE OR RELI -14 GIOUS SCHOOLS.—No Federal, State, or local 15 government entity, or officer or employee there-16 of, shall impose or permit the imposition of any 17 conditions or requirements that would exclude 18 or operate to exclude educational expenses at 19 private or religious elementary and secondary 20 education institutions from being considered 21 qualified elementary or secondary education ex-22 penses. 23 (C) N O EXCLUSION OF QUALIFIED EX -24 PENSES DUE TO INSTITUTION ’S RELIGIOUS 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 21 •HR 833 IH CHARACTER OR AFFILIATION .—No Federal, 1 State, or local government entity, or officer or 2 employee thereof, shall exclude, discriminate 3 against, or otherwise disadvantage any elemen-4 tary or secondary education institution with re-5 spect to qualified elementary or secondary edu-6 cation expenses at that institution based in 7 whole or in part on the institution’s religious 8 character or affiliation, including religiously 9 based or mission-based policies or practices. 10 (3) P ARENTAL RIGHTS TO USE SCHOLAR -11 SHIPS.—No Federal, State, or local government en-12 tity, or officer or employee thereof, shall disfavor or 13 discourage the use of scholarships granted by par-14 ticipating scholarship granting organizations for 15 qualified elementary or secondary education ex-16 penses at private or nonprofit elementary and sec-17 ondary education institutions, including faith-based 18 schools. 19 (4) P ARENTAL RIGHT TO INTERVENE .—In any 20 action filed in any State or Federal court which 21 challenges the constitutionality (under the constitu-22 tion of such State or the Constitution of the United 23 States) of any provision of this Act (or any amend-24 ment made by this Act), any parent of an eligible 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 22 •HR 833 IH student who has received a scholarship from a schol-1 arship granting organization shall have the right to 2 intervene in support of the constitutionality of such 3 provision or amendment. To avoid duplication of ef-4 forts and reduce the burdens placed on the parties 5 to the action, the court in any such action may re-6 quire interveners taking similar positions to file joint 7 papers or to be represented by a single attorney at 8 oral argument, provided that the court does not re-9 quire such interveners to join any brief filed on be-10 half of any State which is a defendant in such ac-11 tion. 12 (b) D EFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section, the 13 terms ‘‘eligible student’’, ‘‘scholarship granting organiza-14 tion’’, and ‘‘qualified elementary or secondary education 15 expense’’ shall have the same meanings given such terms 16 under section 25F(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 17 1986 (as added by section 2(a) of this Act). 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:49 Feb 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H833.IH H833 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS