[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 559 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 559
To prohibit the Secretary of Education from engaging in regulatory
overreach with regard to institutional eligibility under title IV of
the Higher Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 25, 2015
Mr. Burr (for himself, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Isakson, Mr. Tillis, Mr.
Cotton, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Roberts, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Flake,
Mr. Scott, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Portman, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Enzi,
and Ms. Murkowski) introduced the following bill; which was read twice
and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit the Secretary of Education from engaging in regulatory
overreach with regard to institutional eligibility under title IV of
the Higher Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes.
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 ``Supporting Academic Freedom through
Regulatory Relief Act''.
SEC. 2. REGULATORY RELIEF.
(a) Regulations Repealed.--
(1) Repeal.--The following regulations (including any
supplement or revision to such regulations) are repealed and
shall have no legal effect:
(A) State authorization.--Sections 600.4(a)(3),
600.5(a)(4), 600.6(a)(3), 600.9, and 668.43(b) of title
34, Code of Federal Regulations (relating to State
authorization), as added or amended by--
(i) the final regulations published by the
Department of Education in the Federal Register
on October 29, 2010 (75 Fed. Reg. 66832 et
seq.); or
(ii) the negotiated rulemaking committee
established after the notice of intention to
establish such committee published in the
Federal Register on November 20, 2013 (78 Fed.
Reg. 69612 et seq).
(B) Definition of credit hour.--The definition of
the term ``credit hour'' in section 600.2 of title 34,
Code of Federal Regulations, as added by the final
regulations published by the Department of Education in
the Federal Register on October 29, 2010 (75 Fed. Reg.
66946), and clauses (i)(A), (ii), and (iii) of
subsection (k)(2) of section 668.8 of such title, as
amended by such final regulations (75 Fed. Reg. 66949
et seq.).
(C) Gainful employment.--Sections 600.10(c),
600.20(d), 668.6, and 668.7, of title 34, Code of
Federal Regulations as added or amended by the final
regulations published by the Department of Education in
the Federal Register on October 31, 2014 (79 Fed. Reg.
64889 et seq.).
(2) Effect of repeal.--To the extent that regulations
repealed by paragraph (1) amended regulations that were in
effect on June 30, 2011, the provisions of the regulations that
were in effect on June 30, 2011, and were so amended are
restored and revived as if the regulations repealed by
paragraph (1) had not taken effect.
(b) Certain Regulations and Other Actions Prohibited.--
(1) State authorization, gainful employment, and teacher
preparation.--
(A) In general.--The Secretary of Education shall
not, during the period described in subparagraph (B),
promulgate or enforce any regulation or rule not in
effect on the date of enactment of this Act for any
purpose under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 1001 et seq.) with respect to--
(i) the State authorization for
institutions of higher education to operate
within a State;
(ii) the definition or application of the
term ``gainful employment''; or
(iii) a teacher preparation program
accountability system.
(B) Period of prohibition.--The period during which
the Secretary is prohibited from promulgating or
enforcing a regulation described in subparagraph (A)
shall be the period beginning on the date of enactment
of this Act and ending on the date of enactment of a
law that extends by not less than 2 fiscal years the
authorization or duration of 1 or more programs under
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et
seq.).
(2) Credit hour.--The Secretary of Education shall not, on
or after the date of enactment of this Act, promulgate or
enforce any regulation or rule with respect to the definition
of the term ``credit hour'' for any purpose under the Higher
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.).
(3) Postsecondary institution ratings system.--The
Secretary of Education shall not carry out, develop, refine,
promulgate, publish, implement, administer, or enforce a
postsecondary institution ratings system or any other
performance system to rate institutions of higher education (as
defined in section 102 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 1002)).
SEC. 3. THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS.
Section 487(a)(20) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
1094(a)(20)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, an institution described in
section 101 may provide payment, based on the amount of tuition
generated by the institution from student enrollment, to a third-party
entity that provides a set of services to the institution that includes
student recruitment services, regardless of whether the third-party
entity is affiliated with an institution that provides educational
services other than the institution providing such payment, if--
``(A) the third-party entity is not affiliated with
the institution providing such payment;
``(B) the third-party entity does not make
compensation payments to its employees that are
prohibited under this paragraph;
``(C) the set of services provided to the
institution by the third-party entity include services
in addition to student recruitment services, and the
institution does not pay the third-party entity solely
or separately for student recruitment services provided
by the third-party entity; and
``(D) any student recruitment information available
to the third-party entity, including personally
identifiable information, will not be used by, shared
with, or sold to any other person or entity, including
any institution that is affiliated with the third-party
entity.''.
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