I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 999 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to expand access to Coverdell 

education savings accounts. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 9, 2017 

Mr. WALBERG (for himself and Mr. KILDEE) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to expand 

access to Coverdell education savings accounts. 

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 ‘‘Helping Families Save 

5 for Education Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) College costs have increased tremendously 

9 over the past decade. When adjusted for inflation, 

10 the average published price for in-State students at 


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•HR 999 IH

1 public 4-year universities is 34 percent higher than 

2 it was a decade ago and more than twice as high as 

3 it was 20 years ago. The price of private nonprofit 

4 4-year institutions has increased 24 percent during 

5 the last 10 years and 51 percent during the last 20 

6 years. 

7 (2) Federal financial aid for students has also 

8 increased rapidly but failed to mitigate the issues of 

9 rising college costs. Between the 2005–2006 aca10 demic year and the 2015–2016 academic year, the 

11 amount of Federal financial aid in the form of Pell 

12 Grants, Federal student aid, campus based aid, vet13 erans educational benefits, and tax credits increased 

14 from $82.4 billion to $158.3 billion or by 92 per15 cent. The Federal Government’s share of total stu16 dent aid is 66 percent. 

17 (3) Students continue to borrow more than they 

18 can afford. During the 2014–2015 academic year, 

19 approximately 61 percent of students who earned 

20 bachelor’s degrees from public and private nonprofit 

21 institutions at which they began their studies grad22 uated with debt. These students borrowed an aver23 age of $28,100, an increase of 8.9 percent compared 

24 to 5 years ago and an increase of 18.1 percent com25 pared to 10 years ago. 


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1 SEC. 3. EXPANSION OF COVERDELL EDUCATION SAVINGS 

2 ACCOUNTS. 

3 (a) INCREASE IN AGE LIMITATION OF BENEFICIARY

4 AFTER WHICH CONTRIBUTIONS TO ACCOUNT CANNOT

5 BE MADE.—Section 530(b)(1)(A)(ii) of the Internal Rev6 enue Code of 1986 is amended by striking ‘‘age 18’’ and 

7 inserting ‘‘age 22’’. 

8 (b) INCREASE IN ANNUAL DOLLAR LIMITATION ON

9 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ACCOUNT.—Section 530(b)(1)(A)(iii) 

10 of such Code is amended by striking ‘‘$2,000’’ and insert11 ing ‘‘$10,000’’. 

12 (c) EFFECTIVE DATES.— 

13 (1) INCREASE IN AGE LIMITATION.—The 

14 amendments made by subsection (a) shall apply to 

15 contributions made after the date of the enactment 

16 of this Act. 

17 (2) INCREASE IN ANNUAL DOLLAR LIMITATION

18 ON CONTRIBUTIONS.—The amendments made by 

19 subsection (b) shall apply to contributions made in 

20 taxable years ending after the date of the enactment 

21 of this Act. 

Æ 


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