[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2835 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2835

 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require institutions of 
    higher education to post certain IRS returns on their websites.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 7, 2012

  Mr. Brown of Massachusetts introduced the following bill; which was 
 read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
                              and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require institutions of 
    higher education to post certain IRS returns on their websites.

    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 ``Increased Transparency in Higher 
Education Act of 2012''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Internal Revenue Service Form 990--
                    (A) provides the public with financial information 
                about a given nonprofit organization, and is often the 
                only source of this information; and
                    (B) is based on 3 guiding principles: enhancing 
                transparency, promoting tax compliance, and minimizing 
                the burden on the filing organization.
            (2) Section 6104 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 
        requires Internal Revenue Service Form 990 to be available for 
        public inspection; however, the public is generally not aware 
        that nonprofit institutions of higher education are required to 
        file such Form 990 and would not know to look for one.
            (3) Giving students and parents easy access to Internal 
        Revenue Service Form 990s filed by nonprofit institutions of 
        higher education will increase transparency and allow students 
        and parents to make more informed decisions.

SEC. 3. POSTING OF IRS RETURN.

    Part B of title I of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1011 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 124. POSTING OF IRS RETURN.

    ``Each institution of higher education that receives Federal 
financial assistance and is required to file a return under section 
6033 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, shall post such return on 
the website of the institution.''.
                                 <all>