Higher Education Act

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Efforts to update the Higher Education Act stalled as the COVID-19 pandemic put Congressional discussions on hold. Prior to the outbreak, lawmakers were reportedly close to reaching a deal after years of failure. However, there is hope that negotiations will eventually resume in the 117th Congress.

HEA in the 116th Congress

• Senate Action

  U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in September 2019 introduced a piecemeal approach to update the Higher Education Act in the 116th Congress (2019-2020). The Student Aid Improvement Act, S. 2557, included eight bipartisan bills to streamline the Federal Application for Student Aid (FAFSA), simplify financial aid award letters, expand Pell Grant eligibility for students in prisons and allow Pell to be used for short-term programs, among other changes. The proposal followed months of stalled efforts to reach a bipartisan deal for a comprehensive HEA reauthorization.
  

  SENATE PRESS RELEASE   BILL TEXT

• House Action

  Democrats on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee in October 2019 unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the federal higher education law, aiming to cut the cost of college and increase access to college for low-income and minority students. The College Affordability Act included provisions that would:

  • Include the Reverse Transfer Efficiency Act, which AACRAO strongly supports and has advocated for over the past several years
  • Create a national tuition-free community college through a federal-state partnership model where the federal government contributes a per student amount at least 75 percent of the average resident tuition for public community colleges and states contribute 25 percent
  • Increase the maximum Pell Grant award by $500 and permanently index the award to inflation
  • Simplify FAFSA, including an automatic zero EFC for recipients of means-tested benefits
  • Create the Federal Direct Perkins Loan Program to provide an additional source of borrowing for undergraduates and graduates
  • Allow Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and certain other undocumented students access to federal student aid
  • Repeal the federal "student unit record" ban and require the Education Department to develop a system that uses student-level data to evaluate postsecondary outcomes
  • Change the 90/10 rule ratio (the percentage cap of Title IV aid an institution may receive) to 85/15 and expand it to include all educational programs
  • Require the Education Department to establish a Borrower Defense to Repayment process to discharge the federal loans of students who were defrauded by their colleges
  • Require the Education Department to establish a compliance standard that includes a debt-to-earnings threshold for training programs that are statutorily required to lead to gainful employment
  • Prohibit the Education Department from issuing or enforcing the proposed Title IX rules that the Trump administration published in November 2018, among other things.

   

  The College Affordability Act shared some key provisions with the Senate's package of bipartisan bills. Both proposals aimed to streamline FAFSA, simplify financial aid award letters, and expand Pell eligibility for incarcerated students and short-term programs—although the House bill excluded for-profit colleges.

  However, the House measure did not gain any traction in the 116th Congress's Republican-controlled Senate.

  HOUSE PRESS RELEASE  BILL TEXT  OVERVIEW OF COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY ACT

   

Issues

• Affirmative Action Challenge & Guidance for Supreme Court Decision
• Correcting 2012 FERPA Regulations
• FERPA
• FERPA and Electronic Records
• Higher Education Act
• Negotiated Rulemaking
• Reverse Transfer
• Solomon Amendment
• State Issues: Privacy Legislation
• State Issues: California Transcript Law
• Title IX
• Veterans & Service Members
• Voter Registration

UPDATES

Republicans and Democrats on the Senate's education meeting were reportedly close to reaching a deal to update the Higher Education Act (HEA) after years of failure before the COVID-19 pandemic put discussions on hold, according to a top Republican aide to the committee, Inside Higher Ed reported.

A few months ago, HEA reauthorization—plans for which included provisions to simplify the application for student aid and for increasing the size of Pell Grants—was a top priority in higher education. Now hopes for a deal and a committee vote have been quashed as attention has turned to the immediate crisis and stimulus packages to help workers and businesses just survive, reported Inside Higher Ed.

The Republican aide said, "It's dishonest to say it's not harder now. Until we get to a stable public safety environment, everything is hold."

However, if negotiations are able to continue, they would likely pick up where they were before the pandemic. 

"I felt like we were pretty close to an agreement," the aide said. "I felt pretty close to being able to schedule a markup."

The aide said Republicans were having "really good, productive conversations" with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the committee.

"We were getting dang close, and there's no reason why those conversations can't go on," according to the aide.

Related Links

Inside Higher Ed

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/15/senate-committee-was-close-deal-higher-ed-then-came-pandemic

• Advocacy
• Financial Aid and FAFSA
• Higher Education Act

• covid-19
• Federal relations
• pell grant

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