II 112th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 3557 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 19, 2012 Mr. Franken (for himself, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Begich, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Blumenthal, and Mr. Whitehouse) 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 prohibit institutions of higher education that participate in programs under title IV of such Act from including predispute arbitration agreements in enrollment contracts.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Arbitration Fairness for Students Act .

2.

Prohibition of predispute arbitration agreements

Section 487(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following: (30)The institution shall not include a predispute arbitration agreement in contracts with students for enrollment at the institution. In this paragraph, the term predispute arbitration agreement means any agreement to arbitrate a dispute that had not yet arisen at the time of the making of the agreement. .