II 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Native American In5 dian Education Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) Nontribal colleges that serve Native Amer2 ican Indian students have a valuable supplemental 

3 role to that provided by tribally controlled commu4 nity colleges in making available educational oppor5 tunities to Native American Indian students. 

6 (2) Some 4-year colleges serve Native American 

7 Indian students by providing tuition-free education, 

8 with the support of the State in which the institu9 tions are located, as mandated by Federal statute, to 

10 hundreds of Native American Indian students in ful11 fillment of a condition under which the United 

12 States provided land and facilities for colleges to a 

13 State or college. 

14 (3) The value of the Native American Indian 

15 student tuition waiver benefits contributed by these 

16 colleges and the States that support them today far 

17 exceeds the value of the original grant of land and 

18 facilities. 

19 (4) The ongoing financial burden of meeting 

20 this Federal mandate to provide tuition-free edu21 cation to Native American Indian students is no 

22 longer equitably shared among the States and col23 leges because it does not distinguish between Native 

24 American Indian students who are residents of the 

25 State or of another State. 


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1 (5) Native American Indian student tuition 

2 waiver benefits are now at risk of being terminated 

3 by severe budget constraints being experienced by 

4 these colleges and the States which support them. 

5 (b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to ensure 

6 that Federal funding is provided in order to relieve con7 strained State education budgets and to support and sus8 tain the longstanding Federal mandate requiring colleges 

9 and States to waive, in certain circumstances, tuition 

10 charges for Native American Indian students admitted to 

11 an undergraduate college program, including the waiver 

12 of tuition charges for Native American Indian students 

13 who are not residents of the State in which the college 

14 is located. 

15 SEC. 3. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL MANDATE. 

16 Part A of title III of the Higher Education Act of 

17 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1057 et seq.) is amended by inserting 

18 after section 319 the following: 

19 ‘‘SEC. 319A. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL HIGHER EDU20 CATION MANDATE. 

21 ‘‘(a) AMOUNT OF PAYMENT.— 

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraphs (2) 

23 and (3), from amounts made available under sub24 section (e) for fiscal year 2020 and each succeeding 

25 fiscal year, the Secretary shall pay to any eligible 


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1 college an amount equal to the charges for tuition 

2 for such year for all Native American Indian stu3 dents who— 

4 ‘‘(A) are not residents of the State in 

5 which the college is located; and 

6 ‘‘(B) are enrolled in the college for the aca7 demic year ending before the beginning of such 

8 fiscal year. 

9 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE COLLEGES.—For purposes of 

10 this section, an eligible college is any institution of 

11 higher education serving Native American Indian 

12 students that provides tuition-free education as man13 dated by Federal statute, with the support of the 

14 State in which it is located, to Native American In15 dian students in fulfillment of a condition under 

16 which the college or State received its original grant 

17 of land and facilities from the United States. 

18 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—The amount paid to any eli19 gible college for each fiscal year under paragraph (1) 

20 may not exceed the amount equal to the charges for 

21 tuition for all Native American Indian students of 

22 that college who were not residents of the State in 

23 which the college is located and who were enrolled 

24 in the college for academic year 2019–2020. 


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1 ‘‘(b) TREATMENT OF PAYMENT.—Any amounts re2 ceived by an eligible college under this section shall be 

3 treated as a reimbursement from the State in which the 

4 college is located, and shall be considered as provided in 

5 fulfillment of any Federal mandate upon the State to 

6 admit Native American Indian students free of charge of 

7 tuition. 

8 ‘‘(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec9 tion shall be construed to relieve any State from any man10 date the State may have under Federal law to reimburse 

11 a college for each academic year— 

12 ‘‘(1) with respect to Native American Indian 

13 students enrolled in the college who are not residents 

14 of the State in which the college is located, any 

15 amount of charges for tuition for such students for 

16 such academic year that exceeds the amount re17 ceived under this section for such academic year; 

18 and 

19 ‘‘(2) with respect to Native American Indian 

20 students enrolled in the college who are residents of 

21 the State in which the college is located, an amount 

22 equal to the charges for tuition for such students for 

23 such academic year. 

24 ‘‘(d) DEFINITION OF NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN

25 STUDENTS.—In this section, the term ‘Native American 


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1 Indian students’ includes reference to the term ‘Indian pu2 pils’ as that term has been utilized in Federal statutes 

3 imposing a mandate upon any college or State to provide 

4 tuition-free education to Native American Indian students 

5 in fulfillment of a condition under which the college or 

6 State received its original grant of land and facilities from 

7 the United States. 

8 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be 

10 appropriated— 

11 ‘‘(A) $19,700,000 to carry out subsection 

12 (a) for fiscal year 2020; and 

13 ‘‘(B) such sums as may be necessary to 

14 carry out such subsection for each subsequent 

15 fiscal year. 

16 ‘‘(2) NO IMPACT ON RELATED FUNDING.—No 

17 funds providing postsecondary education for Native 

18 American Indian students under any other Federal 

19 law shall be reduced to offset any funds provided 

20 under paragraph (1).’’. 

Æ 


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