Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB163 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 163
5	5	To require institutions of higher education participating in Federal student
6	6	aid programs to share information about title VI of the Civil Rights
7	7	Act of 1964, including a link to the webpage of the Office for Civil
8	8	Rights where an individual can submit a complaint regarding discrimina-
9	9	tion in violation of such title, and for other purposes.
10	10	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
11	11	JANUARY21, 2025
12	12	Mr. C
13	13	ASSIDY(for himself and Mr. FETTERMAN) introduced the following bill;
14	14	which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu-
15	15	cation, Labor, and Pensions
16	16	A BILL
17	17	To require institutions of higher education participating in
18	18	Federal student aid programs to share information about
19	19	title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including a
20	20	link to the webpage of the Office for Civil Rights where
21	21	an individual can submit a complaint regarding discrimi-
22	22	nation in violation of such title, and for other purposes.
23	23	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
24	24	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
25	25	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
26	26	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Students 4
27	27	on Campus Act of 2025’’. 5
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30	30	•S 163 IS
31	31	SEC. 2. TITLE VI AWARENESS CAMPAIGN. 1
32	32	(a) T
33	33	ITLEVI AWARENESSCAMPAIGN.— 2
34	34	(1) I
35	35	N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Education, 3
36	36	acting through the Assistant Secretary for Civil 4
37	37	Rights of the Department of Education, shall carry 5
38	38	out a public awareness campaign regarding the 6
39	39	availability of rights provided to individuals under 7
40	40	title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 8
41	41	2000d et seq.). 9
42	42	(2) A
43	43	WARENESS CAMPAIGN .—The public aware-10
44	44	ness campaign shall include appealing visual and au-11
45	45	ditory elements and shall be updated annually and 12
46	46	distributed to institutions of higher education for 13
47	47	physical posting in 1 or more high traffic public 14
48	48	places, such as student centers, and digital posting 15
49	49	on 1 or more high traffic institution web pages, such 16
50	50	as student services. The campaign shall utilize such 17
51	51	methods and materials as necessary to maximize 18
52	52	student accessibility. 19
53	53	(3) A
54	54	BILITY TO CONTRACT .—The Secretary 20
55	55	may carry out this subsection directly or through a 21
56	56	contract with a nonprofit organization that special-22
57	57	izes in public awareness communications. 23
58	58	(b) HEA A
59	59	MENDMENTS.—Section 487(a) of the 24
60	60	Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094(a)) is 25
61	61	amended by adding at the end the following: 26
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64	64	•S 163 IS
65	65	‘‘(30) The institution— 1
66	66	‘‘(A) has prominently displayed on the 2
67	67	homepage of the institution a link to the 3
68	68	webpage of the Office for Civil Rights of the 4
69	69	Department of Education where an individual 5
70	70	can submit a complaint regarding discrimina-6
71	71	tion on the basis of race, color, or national ori-7
72	72	gin in violation of title VI of the Civil Rights 8
73	73	Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.); and 9
74	74	‘‘(B) will annually display and post the 10
75	75	public awareness campaign materials created 11
76	76	and distributed under section 2(a) of the Pro-12
77	77	tecting Students on Campus Act of 2025 in 13
78	78	high traffic public places on campus, such as 14
79	79	student centers, and high traffic institution web 15
80	80	pages, such as student services.’’. 16
81	81	SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFINGS. 17
82	82	(a) I
83	83	NGENERAL.—Beginning not later than 30 days 18
84	84	after the date of enactment of this Act and ending 1 year 19
85	85	after the date of enactment of this Act, the Assistant Sec-20
86	86	retary for Civil Rights of the Department of Education 21
87	87	shall give a monthly briefing to Congress— 22
88	88	(1) explaining the number of complaints that 23
89	89	the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of 24
90	90	Education (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Office’’) 25
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93	93	•S 163 IS
94	94	has received in the previous month regarding dis-1
95	95	crimination on the basis of race, color, or national 2
96	96	origin in violation of title VI of the Civil Rights Act 3
97	97	of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.), disaggregated by 4
98	98	the basis of discrimination; 5
99	99	(2) describing how the Office plans to address 6
100	100	those complaints and the investigations opened in re-7
101	101	sponse to those complaints; and 8
102	102	(3) providing data about the length of time that 9
103	103	those complaints remain open after being received by 10
104	104	the Office. 11
105	105	(b) R
106	106	EPORT.—Not later than 48 hours prior to each 12
107	107	briefing described in subsection (a), the Assistant Sec-13
108	108	retary for Civil Rights of the Department of Education 14
109	109	shall provide a written report to Congress that contains 15
110	110	the information that will be presented at the next briefing, 16
111	111	in a manner that protects personally identifiable informa-17
112	112	tion in accordance with applicable privacy laws. 18
113	113	SEC. 4. AUDIT AND STUDY. 19
114	114	(a) R
115	115	EQUIREMENTTOSUBMITDATA.—Each institu-20
116	116	tion of higher education receiving Federal funds shall sub-21
117	117	mit an annual report to the Inspector General of the De-22
118	118	partment of Education that includes— 23
119	119	(1) the number of complaints regarding dis-24
120	120	crimination on the basis of race, color, or national 25
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123	123	•S 163 IS
124	124	origin in violation of title VI of the Civil Rights Act 1
125	125	of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.) that were sub-2
126	126	mitted to the institution in the previous year; 3
127	127	(2) an analysis of the number of such com-4
128	128	plaints and their substance; and 5
129	129	(3) a narrative of the action the institution took 6
130	130	with respect to such complaints. 7
131	131	(b) A
132	132	UDIT.—The Inspector General of the Depart-8
133	133	ment of Education shall complete an annual audit of the 9
134	134	institutions of higher education that are in the top 5 per-10
135	135	cent of institutions based on the per capita number of 11
136	136	complaints described in subsection (a) received by the in-12
137	137	stitutions, controlling for student population, to examine 13
138	138	the process for addressing such complaints and the need 14
139	139	for any referrals to the Office for Civil Rights of the De-15
140	140	partment of Education. 16
141	141	(c) S
142	142	TUDY.—The Inspector General of the Depart-17
143	143	ment of Education shall conduct a study— 18
144	144	(1) regarding why there is a disparity between 19
145	145	the complaints regarding discrimination on the basis 20
146	146	of race, color, or national origin in violation of title 21
147	147	VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d 22
148	148	et seq.) that are submitted to institutions of higher 23
149	149	education and such complaints that are submitted to 24
150	150	the Office; and 25
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153	153	•S 163 IS
154	154	(2) quantifying the distinction described in 1
155	155	paragraph (1). 2
156	156	SEC. 5. OCR PROCESS REFORMS. 3
157	157	The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of 4
158	158	Education shall not close or dismiss any complaint due 5
159	159	to resolution by another Federal, State, or local civil rights 6
160	160	enforcement agency or through a recipient’s internal griev-7
161	161	ance procedures. 8
162	162	Æ
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