[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 759 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 759

 To help provide relief to State education budgets during a recovering 
    economy, to help fulfill the Federal mandate to provide higher 
 educational opportunities for Native American Indians, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 12, 2019

Mr. Gardner (for himself, Mr. Bennet, Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Smith, and Mr. 
   Heinrich) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To help provide relief to State education budgets during a recovering 
    economy, to help fulfill the Federal mandate to provide higher 
 educational opportunities for Native American Indians, 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 ``Native American Indian Education 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) Nontribal colleges that serve Native American Indian 
        students 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 4-year colleges serve Native American Indian 
        students by providing tuition-free education, with the support 
        of the State in which the institutions 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 colleges to a State or 
        college.
            (3) The value of the Native American Indian student tuition 
        waiver benefits contributed by these colleges and the States 
        that 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 Native American 
        Indian students is no longer equitably shared among the States 
        and colleges because it does not distinguish between Native 
        American Indian students who are residents of the State or of 
        another State.
            (5) Native American Indian 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.
    (b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this Act to ensure that Federal 
funding is provided in order to relieve constrained State education 
budgets and to support and sustain the longstanding Federal mandate 
requiring colleges and States to waive, in certain circumstances, 
tuition charges for Native American Indian students admitted to an 
undergraduate college program, including the waiver of tuition charges 
for Native American Indian students who are not residents of the State 
in which the college is located.

SEC. 3. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL MANDATE.

    Part A of title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1057 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 319 the following:

``SEC. 319A. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL HIGHER EDUCATION MANDATE.

    ``(a) Amount of Payment.--
            ``(1) In general.--Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), from 
        amounts made available under subsection (e) for fiscal year 
        2020 and each succeeding fiscal year, the Secretary shall pay 
        to any eligible college an amount equal to the charges for 
        tuition for such year for all Native American Indian students 
        who--
                    ``(A) are not residents of the State in which the 
                college is located; and
                    ``(B) 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 institution of higher education serving 
        Native American Indian students that 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 eligible college 
        for each fiscal year under paragraph (1) may not exceed the 
        amount equal to the charges for tuition for all Native American 
        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 2019-2020.
    ``(b) Treatment of Payment.--Any amounts received by an eligible 
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 
Native American Indian students free of charge of tuition.
    ``(c) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be 
construed to relieve any State from any mandate the State may have 
under Federal law to reimburse a college for each academic year--
            ``(1) with respect to Native American 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 for such academic year that exceeds the 
        amount received under this section for such academic year; and
            ``(2) with respect to Native American 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) Definition of Native American Indian Students.--In this 
section, the term `Native American 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 the college or State received 
its original grant of land and facilities from the United States.
    ``(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--
            ``(1) In general.--There are authorized to be 
        appropriated--
                    ``(A) $19,700,000 to carry out subsection (a) for 
                fiscal year 2020; and
                    ``(B) such sums as may be necessary to carry out 
                such subsection for each subsequent fiscal year.
            ``(2) No impact on related funding.--No funds providing 
        postsecondary education for Native American Indian students 
        under any other Federal law shall be reduced to offset any 
        funds provided under paragraph (1).''.
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