II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 660 

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 in order to fulfill the Federal 

mandate to provide higher educational opportunities for Native American 

Indians. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 15, 2017 

Mr. GARDNER (for himself and Mr. BENNET) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 in order to 

fulfill the Federal mandate to provide higher educational 

opportunities for Native American Indians. 

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. PURPOSE. 

7 It is the purpose of this Act to ensure that Federal 

8 funding is provided to support and sustain the long9 standing Federal mandate requiring colleges and States 


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1 to waive, in certain circumstances, tuition charges for Na2 tive American Indian students they admit to an under3 graduate college program, including the waiver of tuition 

4 charges for Native American Indian students who are not 

5 residents of the State in which the college is located. 

6 SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Native American-serving nontribal college 

9 institutions have a valuable supplemental role to 

10 that provided by tribally controlled community col11 leges in making available educational opportunities 

12 to Native American Indian students. 

13 (2) Some 4-year Native American-serving non14 tribal college institutions provide tuition-free edu15 cation, with the support of the State in which they 

16 are located, as mandated by Federal statute, to hun17 dreds of Native American Indian students in fulfill18 ment of a condition under which the United States 

19 provided land and facilities for such colleges to a 

20 State or college. 

21 (3) The value of the Native student tuition 

22 waiver benefits contributed by these colleges and the 

23 States which support them today far exceeds the 

24 value of the original grant of land and facilities. 


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1 (4) The ongoing financial burden of meeting 

2 this Federal mandate to provide tuition-free edu3 cation to Native American Indian students is no 

4 longer equitably shared among the States and col5 leges because the mandate does not distinguish be6 tween such students who are residents of the State 

7 or who are residents of another State. 

8 (5) Native student tuition waiver benefits are 

9 now at risk of being terminated by severe budget 

10 constraints being experienced by these colleges and 

11 the States which support them. 

12 SEC. 4. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL HIGHER EDUCATION 

13 MANDATE. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Part A of title III of the Higher 

15 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1057 et seq.) is amend16 ed by inserting after section 319 the following: 

17 ‘‘SEC. 319A. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL HIGHER EDU18 CATION MANDATE. 

19 ‘‘(a) AMOUNT OF PAYMENT.—For fiscal year 2018 

20 and each succeeding fiscal year through fiscal year 2022, 

21 the Secretary may pay to any eligible college an amount 

22 that equals the charges for tuition waived by the college 

23 (as described in subsection (e)(1)) for the academic year 

24 ending before the beginning of such fiscal year for Native 

25 American Indian students who were enrolled in the college 


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1 for such academic year and who were not residents of the 

2 State in which the college is located during such academic 

3 year. 

4 ‘‘(b) TREATMENT OF PAYMENT.—Any amounts re5 ceived by an eligible college under subsection (a) shall be 

6 treated as a reimbursement from the State in which the 

7 college is located, which is provided in fulfillment of any 

8 Federal mandate upon the State to waive charges for tui9 tion for Native American Indian students. 

10 ‘‘(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec11 tion shall be construed to relieve any State from any man12 date the State may have under Federal law to reimburse 

13 an eligible college for an academic year— 

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

15 students enrolled in the college who are not residents 

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

17 amount of charges for tuition waived by the college 

18 for such students that exceeds the amount received 

19 by the college under subsection (a) for such aca20 demic year; and 

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

22 students enrolled in the college who are residents of 

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

24 equal to the charges for tuition waived by the college 

25 for such students for such academic year. 


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1 ‘‘(d) APPLICABILITY.— 

2 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The provisions of any other 

3 section of this part or part G shall not apply with 

4 respect to funds paid under this section. 

5 ‘‘(2) NO EFFECT ON ELIGIBILITY.—Funds re6 ceived by a Native American-serving, nontribal insti7 tution under this section shall not be taken into ac8 count for purposes of section 319(d)(3)(A). 

9 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

10 ‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE COLLEGE.—The term ‘eligible 

11 college’ means any 4-year Native American-serving, 

12 nontribal institution that waives the charges for tui13 tion as mandated by Federal statute, with the sup14 port of the State in which the institution is located, 

15 for Native American Indian students in fulfillment 

16 of a condition under which the institution or State 

17 received its original grant of land and facilities from 

18 the United States. 

19 ‘‘(2) NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN STUDENTS.— 

20 The term ‘Native American Indian students’ in21 cludes reference to the term ‘Indian pupils’ as that 

22 term has been utilized in Federal statutes imposing 

23 a mandate upon any eligible college or State to 

24 waive charges for tuition for Native American Indian 

25 students in fulfillment of a condition under which 


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1 the college or State received its original grant of 

2 land and facilities from the United States. 

3 ‘‘(3) NATIVE AMERICAN-SERVING, NONTRIBAL

4 INSTITUTION.—The term ‘Native American-serving, 

5 nontribal institution’ has the meaning given the 

6 term in section 319(b). 

7 ‘‘(f) SUPPLEMENT, NOT SUPPLANT.—Funds under 

8 this section shall be used to supplement, not supplant, any 

9 Federal or non-Federal funds that would otherwise be 

10 used for Indian education programs.’’. 

11 (b) AUTHORIZATION.—Section 399(a)(1) of the 

12 Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1068h(a)(1)) 

13 is amended— 

14 (1) by redesignating subparagraph (F) as sub15 paragraph (G); and 

16 (2) by inserting after subparagraph (E) the fol17 lowing: 

18 ‘‘(F) There are authorized to be appropriated to 

19 carry out section 319A, $17,400,000 for each of fis20 cal years 2018 through 2022.’’. 

Æ 


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