House Committee Approves HEA Draft
House Committee Approves HEA Draft
The House Education & Labor Committee approved on November 15 its
draft of Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization. Congress has
previously reauthorized some higher education programs through its
reconciliation bill, the College Cost Reduction Act, which became law
on September 27. The Senate passed its HEA bill on July 24.
Like the Senate bill, the House committee’s bill includes guidelines
for relationships between colleges and student loan lenders, and
requires colleges to disclose their transfer-of-credit policies. The
bill also includes college cost provisions that provide additional
Pell Grant funds to schools that hold their tuition growth to a
certain level, but also account for state-level support of higher
education by requiring a “state maintenance of effort.”
The bill also weakens the so-called “90/10 rule,” which requires
proprietary institutions to garner at least 10 percent of their
revenue from sources other than the federal government. The higher
education community is opposed to this provision and will work to
remove it during the legislative process. The next step for the House
HEA bill is floor debate, which has not yet been scheduled.
Susan Cohen, The Cooper Union
Heath Einstein, Solomon Schechter School of Westchester
