[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 5819]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE ACCESS ACT TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS ACT OF 
                                  2001

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 4, 2001

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I am pleased to introduce the 
District of Columbia College Access Act Technical Corrections Act of 
2001. I am particularly pleased and appreciative to be joined by my 
colleagues, D.C. Subcommittee Chair Connie Morella and former Chair Tom 
Davis, who are original cosponsors of this bill and were original 
cosponsors of the landmark College Access Act that has proved so 
successful.
  This bill is necessary to correct three problems that have arisen in 
the administration of the District's Tuition Assistance Grant Program, 
authorized in 1999 with the passage of the District of Columbia College 
Access Act. The Act allows D.C. residents in-state tuition at public 
colleges and universities nationwide or a $2500 stipend at private 
colleges and universities in the region.
  First, the bill amends the College Access Act to remove a provision 
limiting the benefits of the Act to residents who graduated from high 
school before January 1, 1998. The bill would allow current college 
seniors and a smaller group of juniors who are presently excluded from 
the program, but are otherwise eligible for College Access Act benefits 
to receive those benefits. The arbitrary cutoff date, which was not 
included in the bill passed by the House, was put in the bill in the 
Senate out of concern that there might not be enough money to cover all 
eligible students. Fortunately, the evidence does not support this 
assumption, allowing the students eligible in the original House bill 
to be funded. The District has received over 3500 applications and 
placed over 1600 students at colleges and universities across the 
country. The program's $17 million appropriation was originally derived 
with the assumption that current college juniors and seniors would 
indeed qualify, and the program currently has the funds to allow these 
students to participate. It is inherently unfair for D.C. residents who 
are college freshmen and sophomores to get the benefit, while students 
who are juniors and seniors do not.
  Second, the bill removes the arbitrary three year deadline for 
college admission in order to be eligible for the benefits in the 
College Access Act. The bill as passed in the House never intended to 
deny in-state tuition to students who had to work after high school or 
who have decided to get a college degree later in life. The three year 
deadline language was also placed in the Act by the Senate to control 
the cost of the program. However, the District has done a study of the 
data and it is clear that it has the funds to include these students in 
the program. It is unfair to penalize otherwise eligible students 
because their life circumstances necessitated that they work before 
entering college. The Congress should applaud and encourage these 
students. The Department of Education, for example, does not place a 
similar constraint on its programs.
  Third, the bill closes the loophole that currently allows foreign 
nationals who live in the District to receive the benefits of the Act. 
The congressional intent of the bill was to provide state university 
system-type higher education options to D.C. residents, not foreign 
nationals who happen to live in the District. Most of these students 
already have the option to take advantage of their own country's higher 
educational systems. The bill merely mirrors the Department of 
Education's own statutory requirements on this matter.
  The positive impact of the College Access Act on the District of 
Columbia has been extraordinary. For the first time, D.C. students have 
the same higher educational choices available to them as residents of 
the fifty states. This bill seeks only to include those who were 
arbitrarily left out of the Act from receiving these benefits.
  The end of the current school year is rapidly approaching and current 
college seniors will begin to graduate in May. Because of the necessity 
for swift passage and the noncontroversial nature of this bill, I am 
asking Chairwoman Morella to seek to have the bill placed on the 
suspension calendar as soon as we return from recess.
  I urge all of my colleagues to support this important, 
noncontroversial measure.

                          ____________________