[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1803 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1803
To modify the Federal TRIO programs.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 12, 2019
Ms. Collins (for herself, Ms. Baldwin, Mrs. Capito, and Mr. Tester)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To modify the Federal TRIO programs.
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 ``Educational Opportunity and Success
Act of 2019''.
SEC. 2. FEDERAL TRIO PROGRAMS AMENDMENTS.
(a) Review and Notification by the Secretary.--Section 402A(c) of
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a-11(c)) is amended by
striking paragraph (8) and inserting the following:
``(8) Review and notification by the secretary.--
``(A) Guidance.--Not less than 90 days before the
commencement of each competition for a grant under this
chapter, the Secretary shall issue nonregulatory
guidance regarding the rights and responsibilities of
applicants with respect to the application and
evaluation process for programs and projects assisted
under this chapter, including applicant access to peer
review comments. The guidance shall describe the
procedures for the submission, processing, and scoring
of applications for grants under this chapter,
including the information described in subparagraph
(B).
``(B) Technical components of applications.--
``(i) Establishment and treatment of
nonsubstantive technical components of
applications.--With respect to any competition
for a grant under this chapter, the Secretary
may only establish voluntary page limit and
formatting requirements for grant applications
and may not reject grant applications that do
not meet those voluntary requirements. The
Secretary may suggest page limits and
formatting standards, (including with respect
to font size, font style, font type, line
spacing, paragraph justification, and page
margins), but may not use noncompliance with
these suggested requirements as a basis to
reject or penalize grant applications.
``(ii) Identification and treatment of
technical budget errors in applications.--
``(I) In general.--With respect to
any competition for a grant under this
chapter, the Secretary may not reject
or penalize grant applications on the
basis of a typographical or rounding
error in a proposed budget until the
Secretary has given the applicant an
opportunity for correction in
accordance with subclause (II).
``(II) Notice and opportunity for
correction.--The Secretary shall
provide notice and identification of an
error described in subclause (I) by
email and phone to the applicant before
awarding grants for each competition.
During a period of not fewer than 14
days, the Secretary shall allow the
applicant to submit a revised
application that corrects the
identified error.
``(III) Treatment of revised
applications.--The Secretary shall
treat the revised application in the
same manner as a timely submitted
application.
``(IV) Failure to correct.--If an
applicant has received a notice and
opportunity for correction of a
typographical or rounding error in a
proposed budget in accordance with
subclause (II) and the applicant fails
to correct the error and submit a
revised application before the deadline
described in that subclause, the
Secretary may reject or penalize that
grant application.
``(C) Review.--
``(i) Request for review.--With respect to
any competition for a grant under this chapter,
an applicant may request a review if the
applicant--
``(I) has evidence that a specific
technical, administrative, or scoring
error was made by the Department, an
agent of the Department, or a peer
reviewer, with respect to the scoring
or processing of a submitted
application; and
``(II) has otherwise met all of the
requirements for submission of the
application.
``(ii) Error made by the department.--In
the case of evidence of error by the Department
or an agent of the Department, other than a
peer reviewer, the Secretary shall review any
evidence submitted by the applicant and provide
a timely response to the applicant. If the
Secretary determines that an error was made by
the Department or an agent of the Department,
other than a peer reviewer, the Secretary shall
correct the error and accordingly adjust the
applicant score.
``(iii) Error made by a peer reviewer.--
``(I) In general.--In the case of
evidence of error by a peer reviewer, a
secondary review panel shall
automatically and promptly evaluate the
application for consideration in the
applicable grant competition upon
receipt of a request by any such
applicant. Examples of errors
warranting secondary review may
include--
``(aa) points withheld for
criteria not required in
statute, regulation, or
guidance governing a program
under this chapter or the
application for a grant for
such program; or
``(bb) information
pertaining to selection
criteria that was incorrectly
determined to be missing from
an application.
``(II) Timely review and
replacement score.--The secondary
review panel described in subclause (I)
shall conduct a secondary review in a
timely fashion, and the score resulting
from the secondary review shall replace
the score from the initial peer review.
``(III) Composition of secondary
review panel.--The secondary review
panel shall be composed of reviewers
each of whom--
``(aa) did not review the
application in the original
peer review;
``(bb) is a member of the
cohort of peer reviewers for
the grant program that is the
subject of such secondary
review; and
``(cc) to the extent
practicable, has conducted peer
reviews in not less than 2
previous competitions for the
grant program that is the
subject of such secondary
review.
``(IV) Final score.--The final peer
review score of an application subject
to a secondary review under this clause
shall promptly be adjusted
appropriately using the score awarded
by the secondary review panel, so as
not to interfere with the timely
awarding of grants for the applicable
grant competition.
``(iv) Finality.--
``(I) In general.--A determination
by the Secretary under clause (ii)
shall not be reviewable by any officer
or employee of the Department other
than the Secretary.
``(II) Scoring.--The score awarded
by a secondary review panel under
clause (iii) shall not be reviewable by
any officer or employee of the
Department other than the Secretary.
``(v) Funding of applications with certain
adjusted scores.--Applications with scores that
are adjusted upward under clause (ii) or (iii)
that equal or exceed the minimum cut-off score
for the applicable grant competition shall be
funded by the Secretary using general or
administrative funds available to the Secretary
other than those funds appropriated or
allocated for the programs authorized by this
chapter.''.
(b) Outreach.--Section 402A(d)(3) of the Higher Education Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a-11(d)(3)) is amended by adding at the end the
following: ``The Secretary shall also host at least one virtual,
interactive training using telecommunications technology to ensure that
interested applicants have access to technical assistance.''.
(c) Documentation of Status as a Low-Income Individual.--Section
402A(e) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a-11(e)) is
amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)--
(A) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``or'' after
the semicolon;
(B) in subparagraph (D), by striking the period at
the end and inserting a semicolon; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(E) documentation that the student has been
determined to be eligible for a Federal Pell Grant
under section 401; or
``(F) for grants authorized under section 402B and
402F of this chapter, documentation that a student is
attending a school that had a percentage of enrolled
students who are identified students (as defined in
section 11(a)(1)(F)(i) of the Richard B. Russell
National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C.
1759a(a)(1)(F)(i))) that meets or exceeds the threshold
described in section 11(a)(1)(F)(viii) of that Act
during the school year prior to the first year of the
period for which such grant is awarded.''; and
(2) in paragraph (2)--
(A) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``or'' after
the semicolon;
(B) in subparagraph (D), by striking the period at
the end and inserting a semicolon; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(E) documentation that the student has been
determined to be eligible for a Federal Pell Grant
under section 401; or
``(F) for grants authorized under section 402B and
402F of this chapter, documentation that a student is
attending a school that had a percentage of enrolled
students who are identified students (as defined in
section 11(a)(1)(F)(i) of the Richard B. Russell
National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C.
1759a(a)(1)(F)(i))) that meets or exceeds the threshold
described in section 11(a)(1)(F)(viii) of that Act
during the school year prior to the first year of the
period for which such grant is awarded.''.
(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--Section 402A(g) of the Higher
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a-11(g)) is amended to read as
follows:
``(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--For the purpose of making
grants and contracts under this chapter, there are authorized to be
appropriated $1,060,000,000 for fiscal year 2020 and such sums as may
be necessary for each of the five succeeding fiscal years. Of the
amount appropriated under this chapter, the Secretary may use no more
than 1 percent of such amount to obtain additional qualified readers
and additional staff to review applications, to increase the level of
oversight monitoring, to support impact studies, program assessments,
and reviews, and to provide technical assistance to potential
applicants and current grantees.''.
(e) Definitions.--Section 402A(h) of the Higher Education Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a-11(h)) is amended by striking paragraph (4) and
inserting the following:
``(4) Low-income individual.--The term `low-income
individual' means--
``(A) an individual from a family whose adjustable
gross income for the preceding year did not exceed 150
percent of an amount equal to the poverty level
determined by using criteria of poverty established by
the Bureau of the Census;
``(B) an individual from a family whose adjustable
gross income, as reported on the individual's most
recently completed Free Application for Federal Student
Aid, did not exceed 150 percent of an amount equal to
the poverty level determined by using criteria of
poverty established by the Bureau of the Census for
that year;
``(C) an individual who has been determined to be
eligible for a Federal Pell Grant under section 401; or
``(D) for grants authorized under section 402B and
402F of this chapter, a student who is attending a
school that had a percentage of enrolled students who
are identified students (as defined in section
11(a)(1)(F)(i) of the Richard B. Russell National
School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1759a(a)(1)(F)(i))) that
meets or exceeds the threshold described in section
11(a)(1)(F)(viii) of that Act during the school year
prior to the first year of the period for which such
grant is awarded.''.
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