[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3169 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]


        H.R.3169

                       One Hundred Ninth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE FIRST SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
            the fourth day of January, two thousand and five


                                 An Act


 
To provide the Secretary of Education with waiver authority for students 
who are eligible for Pell Grants who are adversely affected by a natural 
                                disaster.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Pell Grant Hurricane and Disaster 
Relief Act''.

SEC. 2. WAIVERS OF FEDERAL PELL GRANT REPAYMENT BY STUDENTS AFFECTED BY 
              DISASTERS.

    Section 484B(b)(2) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1091b(b)(2)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph:
            ``(D) Waivers of federal pell grant repayment by students 
        affected by disasters.--The Secretary may waive the amounts 
        that students are required to return under this section with 
        respect to Federal Pell Grants if the withdrawals on which the 
        returns are based are withdrawals by students--
                ``(i) who were residing in, employed in, or attending 
            an institution of higher education that is located in an 
            area in which the President has declared that a major 
            disaster exists, in accordance with section 401 of the 
            Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance 
            Act (42 U.S.C. 5170);
                ``(ii) whose attendance was interrupted because of the 
            impact of the disaster on the student or the institution; 
            and
                ``(iii) whose withdrawal ended within the academic year 
            during which the designation occurred or during the next 
            succeeding academic year.''.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.