[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 34 (Tuesday, February 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S823-S825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. Reed, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Brown,
Ms. Hassan, Ms. Warren, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Carper, Ms. Smith, and
Mr. Sanders):
[[Page S824]]
S. 383. A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 regarding
proprietary institutions of higher education in order to protect
students and taxpayers; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of
the bill be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 383
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 ``Protecting Our Students and
Taxpayers Act of 2021'' or ``POST Act of 2021''.
SEC. 2. 85/15 RULE.
(a) In General.--Section 102(b) of the Higher Education Act
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002(b)) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)--
(A) in subparagraph (D), by striking ``and'' after the
semicolon;
(B) in subparagraph (E), by striking the period at the end
and inserting ``; and''; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(F) meets the requirements of paragraph (2).'';
(2) by redesignating paragraph (2) as paragraph (3); and
(3) by inserting after paragraph (1) the following:
``(2) Revenue sources.--
``(A) In general.--In order to qualify as a proprietary
institution of higher education under this subsection, an
institution shall derive not less than 15 percent of the
institution's revenues from sources other than Federal
education assistance funds, as calculated in accordance with
subparagraphs (B) and (C).
``(B) Federal education assistance funds.--In this
paragraph, the term `Federal education assistance funds'
means any Federal financial assistance provided, under this
Act or any other Federal law, through a grant, contract,
subsidy, loan, guarantee, insurance, or other means to a
proprietary institution, including Federal financial
assistance that is disbursed or delivered to an institution
or on behalf of a student or to a student to be used to
attend the institution, except that such term shall not
include any monthly housing stipend provided under the Post-
9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Program under chapter 33
of title 38, United States Code.
``(C) Implementation of non-federal revenue requirement.--
In making calculations under subparagraph (A), an institution
of higher education shall--
``(i) use the cash basis of accounting;
``(ii) consider as revenue only those funds generated by
the institution from--
``(I) tuition, fees, and other institutional charges for
students enrolled in programs eligible for assistance under
title IV;
``(II) activities conducted by the institution that are
necessary for the education and training of the institution's
students, if such activities are--
``(aa) conducted on campus or at a facility under the
control of the institution;
``(bb) performed under the supervision of a member of the
institution's faculty; and
``(cc) required to be performed by all students in a
specific educational program at the institution; and
``(III) a contractual arrangement with a Federal agency for
the purpose of providing job training to low-income
individuals who are in need of such training;
``(iii) presume that any Federal education assistance funds
that are disbursed or delivered to an institution on behalf
of a student or directly to a student will be used to pay the
student's tuition, fees, or other institutional charges,
regardless of whether the institution credits such funds to
the student's account or pays such funds directly to the
student, except to the extent that the student's tuition,
fees, or other institutional charges are satisfied by--
``(I) grant funds provided by an outside source that--
``(aa) has no affiliation with the institution; and
``(bb) shares no employees, executives, or board members
with the institution; and
``(II) institutional scholarships described in clause (v);
``(iv) include no loans made by an institution of higher
education as revenue to the school, except for payments made
by students on such loans;
``(v) include a scholarship provided by the institution--
``(I) only if the scholarship is in the form of monetary
aid based upon the academic achievements or financial need of
students, disbursed to qualified student recipients during
each fiscal year from an established restricted account; and
``(II) only to the extent that funds in that account
represent designated funds, or income earned on such funds,
from an outside source that--
``(aa) has no affiliation with the institution; and
``(bb) shares no employees, executives, or board members
with the institution; and
``(vi) exclude from revenues--
``(I) the amount of funds the institution received under
part C of title IV, unless the institution used those funds
to pay a student's institutional charges;
``(II) the amount of funds the institution received under
subpart 4 of part A of title IV;
``(III) the amount of funds provided by the institution as
matching funds for any Federal program;
``(IV) the amount of Federal education assistance funds
provided to the institution to pay institutional charges for
a student that were refunded or returned; and
``(V) the amount charged for books, supplies, and
equipment, unless the institution includes that amount as
tuition, fees, or other institutional charges.
``(D) Report to congress.--Not later than July 1, 2021, and
by July 1 of each succeeding year, the Secretary shall submit
to the authorizing committees a report that contains, for
each proprietary institution of higher education that
receives assistance under title IV and as provided in the
audited financial statements submitted to the Secretary by
each institution pursuant to the requirements of section
487(c)--
``(i) the amount and percentage of such institution's
revenues received from Federal education assistance funds;
and
``(ii) the amount and percentage of such institution's
revenues received from other sources.''.
(b) Repeal of Existing Requirements.--Section 487 of the
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) by striking paragraph (24);
(B) by redesignating paragraphs (25) through (29) as
paragraphs (24) through (28), respectively;
(C) in paragraph (24)(A)(ii) (as redesignated by
subparagraph (B)), by striking ``subsection (e)'' and
inserting ``subsection (d)''; and
(D) in paragraph (26) (as redesignated by subparagraph
(B)), by striking ``subsection (h)'' and inserting
``subsection (g)'';
(2) by striking subsection (d);
(3) by redesignating subsections (e) through (j) as
subsections (d) through (i), respectively;
(4) in the matter preceding paragraph (1) of subsection (d)
(as redesignated by paragraph (3)), by striking ``(a)(25)''
and inserting ``(a)(24)'';
(5) in subsection (f)(1) (as redesignated by paragraph
(3)), by striking ``subsection (e)(2)'' and inserting
``subsection (d)(2)''; and
(6) in subsection (g)(1) (as redesignated by paragraph
(3)), by striking ``subsection (a)(27)'' in the matter
preceding subparagraph (A) and inserting ``subsection
(a)(26)''.
(c) Conforming Amendments.--The Higher Education Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.) is amended--
(1) in section 152 (20 U.S.C. 1019a)--
(A) in subsection (a)(1)(A), by striking ``subsections
(a)(27) and (h) of section 487'' and inserting ``subsections
(a)(26) and (g) of section 487''; and
(B) in subsection (b)(1)(B)(i)(I), by striking ``section
487(e)'' and inserting ``section 487(d)'';
(2) in section 153(c)(3) (20 U.S.C. 1019b(c)(3)), by
striking ``section 487(a)(25)'' each place the term appears
and inserting ``section 487(a)(24)'';
(3) in section 496(c)(3)(A) (20 U.S.C. 1099b(c)(3)(A)), by
striking ``section 487(f)'' and inserting ``section 487(e)'';
and
(4) in section 498(k)(1) (20 U.S.C. 1099c(k)(1)), by
striking ``section 487(f)'' and inserting ``section 487(e)''.
______
By Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself, Mr. Rubio, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr.
Scott of Florida, Mr. Manchin, Ms. Collins, and Ms. Hassan):
S. 391. A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to reauthorize
and expand the National Threat Assessment Center of the Department of
Homeland Security; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I come to the floor to reintroduce a
bill that didn't get passed last Congress, a bill that deals with
safety in our schools, a bill aimed at the disasters that come when
schoolchildren are killed by shooters and to deal with this problem
through a program that the Secret Service has had for decades and
asking the Secret Service to see what they can do to apply the
principles of that program to stop mass killings at our schools.
Three years ago, on February 14, 2018, an unspeakable tragedy
occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. In
less than 4 minutes, 14 students and 3 staff members were killed, and,
consequently, their families' and friends' lives were shattered forever
by such a senseless act.
Today, along with my colleagues Senators Rubio and Scott of Florida,
Senators Cortez Masto, Collins, Manchin, and Hassan, I am proud to
reintroduce legislation that will proactively mitigate threats of
violence on school campuses by reauthorizing and expanding the U.S.
Secret Service's program called the National Threat Assessment Center.
The National Threat Assessment Center studies targeted violence and
[[Page S825]]
develops best practices and training to identify and manage threats
before they result in violence like we saw at that school 3 years ago.
The bill establishes a Safe School Initiative, a national program on
school violence prevention, that will include expanded research on
school violence. Most importantly, this legislation allows the Secret
Service to directly equip communities and schools with training and
best practices on recognizing and preventing school violence.
This bill, which I hope will help us to recognize the signs of a
potential attack way long before such an attack occurs, carries the
namesake of those it couldn't save, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School mascot, so this bill is called the EAGLES Act because that is
the mascot of that school.
Two years ago, the Secret Service conducted a review of school
shootings and made a very pivotal finding: All attackers exhibited
concerning behaviors prior to engaging in an act of violence. In other
words, it should be easy to identify these people, and, if identified,
intervention is possible. So had these signs been recognized at an
early enough stage, these attacks could have been stopped.
In the wake of the Parkland shooting in 2018, Congress took steps to
protect schools and to prevent gun violence, including the passage of
the Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing School Violence Act,
which provided funding to schools to strengthen their infrastructure to
make it more difficult for shooters to enter schools.
At that same time, we passed the Fix NICS Act, a law which penalizes
Federal agencies that fail to comply with legal requirements to report
dangerous individuals and violent criminals to the National Instant
Criminal Background Check System so that if they are so reported, then
they won't be able to purchase a gun. However, by passing the EAGLES
Act, we are entering a vital third step in addition to those other two
bills to protect our schools.
I would like to encourage all of my Senate colleagues to support this
bipartisan and, I think, a very commonsense bill. I hope that we can
focus on productive measures like these rather than unfocused efforts
to undermine lawful gun ownership
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