[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1089 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1089

   To help fulfill the Federal mandate to provide higher educational 
               opportunities for Native American Indians.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 25, 2015

  Mr. Tipton (for himself, Mr. Caardenas, Mr. Coffman, Mr. Cole, Mr. 
  Conyers, Ms. DeGette, Mr. Honda, Ms. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New 
  Mexico, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Takai, Mr. Takano, and Mr. Young of Alaska) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
   Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on 
   Appropriations, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To help fulfill the Federal mandate to provide higher educational 
               opportunities for Native American Indians.

    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 ``Native American Indian Education 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

    It is the purpose of this Act to ensure that Federal funding is 
provided to support and sustain the longstanding Federal mandate 
requiring colleges and States to waive, in certain circumstances, 
tuition charges for Native American Indian students they admit to an 
undergraduate college program, including the waiver of tuition charges 
for Indian students who are not residents of the State in which the 
college is located.

SEC. 3. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Native American-serving nontribal college institutions 
        have a valuable supplemental role to that provided by tribally 
        controlled community colleges in making available educational 
        opportunities to Native American Indian students.
            (2) Some four-year Native American-serving nontribal 
        college institutions provide tuition-free education, with the 
        support of the State in which they are located, as mandated by 
        Federal statute, to hundreds of Native American Indian students 
        in fulfillment of a condition under which the United States 
        provided land and facilities for such colleges to a State or 
        college.
            (3) The value of the Native student tuition waiver benefits 
        contributed by these colleges and the States which support them 
        today far exceeds the value of the original grant of land and 
        facilities.
            (4) The ongoing financial burden of meeting this Federal 
        mandate to provide tuition-free education to Indian students is 
        no longer equitably shared among the States and colleges 
        because it does not distinguish between Indian students who are 
        residents of the State or of another State.
            (5) Native student tuition waiver benefits are now at risk 
        of being terminated by severe budget constraints being 
        experienced by these colleges and the States which support 
        them.

SEC. 4. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL MANDATE.

    (a) Amount of Payment.--
            (1) In general.--Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), for 
        fiscal year 2016 and each succeeding fiscal year, the Secretary 
        of Education shall pay to any eligible college an amount equal 
        to the charges for tuition for all Indian students who are not 
        residents of the State in which the college is located and who 
        are enrolled in the college for the academic year ending before 
        the beginning of such fiscal year.
            (2) Eligible colleges.--For purposes of this section, an 
        eligible college is any four-year Native American-serving 
        nontribal institution of higher education which provides 
        tuition-free education as mandated by Federal statute, with the 
        support of the State in which it is located, to Native American 
        Indian students in fulfillment of a condition under which the 
        college or State received its original grant of land and 
        facilities from the United States.
            (3) Limitation.--The amount paid to any college for each 
        fiscal year under paragraph (1) may not exceed the lower of the 
        following amounts:
                    (A) The amount equal to the charges for tuition for 
                all Indian students of that college who were not 
                residents of the State in which the college is located 
                and who were enrolled in the college for academic year 
                2014-2015.
                    (B) $15,000,000.
    (b) Treatment of Payment.--Any amounts received by a college under 
this section shall be treated as a reimbursement from the State in 
which the college is located, and shall be considered as provided in 
fulfillment of any Federal mandate upon the State to admit Indian 
students free of charge of tuition.
    (c) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed 
to relieve any State from any mandate it may have under Federal law to 
reimburse a college for each academic year--
            (1) with respect to Indian students enrolled in the college 
        who are not residents of the State in which the college is 
        located, any amount of charges for tuition for such students 
        that exceeds the amount received under this section for such 
        academic year; and
            (2) with respect to Indian students enrolled in the college 
        who are residents of the State in which the college is located, 
        an amount equal to the charges for tuition for such students 
        for such academic year.
    (d) Definitions.--In this section, the term ``Indian students'' 
includes reference to the term ``Indian pupils'' as that term has been 
utilized in Federal statutes imposing a mandate upon any college or 
State to provide tuition-free education to Native American Indian 
students in fulfillment of a condition under which it received its 
original grant of land and facilities from the United States.
    (e) Funding.--There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as 
may be necessary to carry out this section.

SEC. 5. OFFSET.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, of all 
available unobligated funds, $15,000,000 in appropriated discretionary 
funds are hereby rescinded.
    (b) Implementation.--The Director of the Office of Management and 
Budget shall determine and identify from which appropriation accounts 
the rescission under subsection (a) shall apply and the amount of such 
rescission that shall apply to each such account. Not later than 60 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the 
Office of Management and Budget shall submit a report to the Secretary 
of the Treasury and Congress of the accounts and amounts determined and 
identified for rescission under the preceding sentence.
    (c) Exception.--This section shall not apply to the unobligated 
funds of--
            (1) the Department of the Interior for the postsecondary 
        education of Native American Indian students;
            (2) the Department of Defense;
            (3) the Department of Veterans Affairs; or
            (4) the Department of Education.
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