[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 15, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S3979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am very concerned about section 563 in 
the Senate-passed fiscal year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act 
related to access by institutions of higher education, IHE, to military 
installations purportedly for advising and support services.
  The provision opens the floodgates to military bases and 
servicemembers for for-profit college recruiters. It guts the 
President's Principles of Excellence Executive order meant to protect 
servicemembers from aggressive or abusive recruiting practices on 
military installations by requiring that an IHE be granted access to a 
military installation if it has entered into a memorandum of 
understanding with the Department of Defense, DOD, and has been 
approved to provide services by the installation's educational service 
officer. Regardless of other factors which may be of concern to DOD--
investigations and lawsuits, infractions of the MOU, etc.--if an IHE 
convinces a base's educational service officer to grant them access, 
there is nothing DOD can do to stop it.
  In addition, the provision provides preferential treatment to IHE's 
that enroll large proportions of servicemembers. Providing access to 
installations based on how many servicemembers an IHE enrolls instead 
of the actual needs of the servicemembers at those installations does 
nothing to help improve services for enrolled servicemembers. Instead, 
it further entrenches the big for-profit players whose business models 
rely heavily on servicemembers. Those institutions will be able to tout 
their statutorily guaranteed increased access to military installations 
when recruiting.
  Finally, as passed in the Senate, section 563 does not limit advising 
and support services to an IHE's currently enrolled students. There 
have been well-documented cases of IHE's using access to military bases 
gained under the guise of offering advising and other services for 
recruitment. The Senate-passed language does not limit an IHE's contact 
with servicemembers, once on base, to students it currently enrolls. 
This creates the opportunity for IHE's to clandestinely or openly use 
their access to recruit other servicemembers to their programs.
  Because of the potential harm this provision in the Senate-passed 
bill will cause to servicemembers--giving near unrestricted access to 
for-profit college recruiters at a time when most major companies are 
under State or Federal investigations or lawsuits--I joined Senator 
Brown, along with Senators Warren, Blumenthal, Murray, Franken, Carper, 
Markey, Murphy, Reed, Boxer, Heinrich, and Sanders, to introduce an 
amendment to remove section 563 from the bill. Military and veterans 
groups including the Air Force Sergeants Association, Association of 
the United States Navy, Blue Star Families, Iraq and Afghanistan 
Veterans of America, Military Officers Association of America, Student 
Veterans of America, Veterans Education Success, and Vietnam Veterans 
of America submitted a letter in opposition to the provision. The 
attorneys general of California, Maine, Connecticut, Maryland, District 
of Columbia, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Minnesota, New York, Iowa, and 
Pennsylvania also wrote of their opposition.
  Not only is the provision harmful, but it is unnecessary. IHE's 
already have the ability to gain access to military installations for 
certain legitimate educational activities. I will work with others who 
are opposed to this provision to get it removed in conference.

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