[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 59 (Friday, April 11, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5356-S5357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. GREGG (for himself, Mr. Enzi, and Mr. Cochran):
  S. 901. A bill to make technical amendments to the Higher Education 
Act of 1965, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce, along with my 
colleagues Senator Enzi and Senator Cochran, the Higher Education 
Technical Amendments Act of 2003. This legislation makes several 
technical and non-controversial changes to the Higher Education Act, 
HEA, and is designed to expand access to higher education, provide 
relief from burdensome legal requirements, improve the financial aid 
process, and bring greater clarity to the law.
  My bill provides for the re-enactment of two provisions in the HEA 
that expired at the end of the last fiscal year, and which are of great 
importance to students, their families, and schools. These provide 
schools having low student loan default rates with exemptions from the 
requirement that loan proceeds be disbursed in multiple installments, 
and the requirement that the disbursement of loan proceeds to first-
time undergraduate borrowers be delayed for 30 days after classes 
start. Thousands of institutions of higher education across America 
have traditionally counted on these exemptions to save them time and 
money in the disbursement of their limited financial aid resources. 
These provisions should also serve as an incentive for schools to keep 
their default rates low. At a time when both student and institutional 
budgets are being squeezed, we should do what we can to provide them 
with relief.
  Furthermore, this legislation provides for greater access to federal 
financial aid for those students participating in distance education 
programs. Specifically, it provides a waiver to the rule that a school 
having a 50 percent or more of its students or 50 percent or more of 
its courses in distance education is ineligible for the Title IV 
student aid programs. Schools eligible for the waiver must already be 
participating in the programs and must have low cohort default rates.
  This bill will also clarify that the HEA provision that limits the 
aid eligibility of a student convicted of one or more drug offenses 
applies only to those offenses that occur while the student is in 
school and receiving aid. Thus, students who may have had drug problems 
in the past but who want to turn their lives around through 
postsecondary education will be able to do so.
  The bill makes a number of other beneficial changes to the HEA. Most 
notably, it: Helps protect home-schooled students by making it clear 
that institutions of higher education will not lose their institutional 
eligibility for Federal financial aid by admitting home-schooled 
students; clarifies the Federal policy on the return of financial aid 
funds when students withdraw, to better protect students' grant aid; 
removes barriers to students seeking forbearance from lenders on 
student loan payments, by eliminating the requirement that new 
agreements between lenders and borrowers be in writing; instead, the 
bill allows a lender to accept a request for forbearance over the 
telephone, as long as a confirmation notice of the agreement reached is 
provided to the borrower and the borrower's file is updated; makes 
clear that under the Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity 
Program, the U.S. Department of Education can provide scholarship aid 
to low-income and minority students to prepare for and attend law 
school; eases requirements for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, HSIs, by 
allowing them to apply for federal HSI grants without waiting two years 
between applications; corrects a drafting error in current law that 
mistakenly bars students attending certain nonprofit schools of 
veterinary medicine from eligibility for the Federal Family Education 
Loan Program; requires the GAO to conduct a study on how institutions 
of higher education report teacher pass rates on state certification 
exams; allows financial aid administrators to use ``professional 
judgment'' to adjust a student's financial need in cases where the 
student is a ward of the court; and expands the use of technology to 
provide voter registration material directly to students in a timely 
manner.
  The Higher Education Technical Amendments of 2003 will provide 
important benefits to our Nation's postsecondary students. I urge my 
colleagues to support this legislation.

[[Page S5357]]

                                 ______