II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 765 

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 

APRIL 18, 2013 

Mr. BENNET (for himself, Mr. FRANKEN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. UDALL of 

Colorado, 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) In fiscal year 2012, the State of Colorado 

2 paid approximately $13,000,000 in tuition fees to 

3 support the education of Native American Indian 

4 students at Fort Lewis College in Colorado. In the 

5 State of Minnesota, the University of Minnesota 

6 waived $2,600,000 in tuition for Native American 

7 Indian students in fiscal year 2012. 

8 (6) Native American Indian student tuition 

9 waiver benefits are now at risk of being terminated 

10 by severe budget constraints being experienced by 

11 these colleges and the States which support them. 

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

13 that Federal funding is provided in order to relieve con14 strained State education budgets and to support and sus15 tain the longstanding Federal mandate requiring colleges 

16 and States to waive, in certain circumstances, tuition 

17 charges for Native American Indian students admitted to 

18 an undergraduate college program, including the waiver 

19 of tuition charges for Native American Indian students 

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

21 is located. 

22 SEC. 3. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL MANDATE. 

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

24 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1057 et seq.) is amended by inserting 

25 after section 319 the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 319A. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL HIGHER EDU2 CATION MANDATE. 

3 ‘‘(a) AMOUNT OF PAYMENT.— 

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

5 and (3), for fiscal year 2014 and each succeeding 

6 fiscal year, the Secretary shall pay to any eligible 

7 college an amount equal to the charges for tuition 

8 for such year for all Native American Indian stu9 dents who— 

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

11 which the college is located; and 

12 ‘‘(B) are enrolled in the college for the aca13 demic year ending before the beginning of such 

14 fiscal year. 

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

16 this section, an eligible college is any institution of 

17 higher education serving Native American Indian 

18 students that provides tuition-free education as man19 dated by Federal statute, with the support of the 

20 State in which it is located, to Native American In21 dian students in fulfillment of a condition under 

22 which the college or State received its original grant 

23 of land and facilities from the United States. 

24 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—The amount paid to any eli25 gible college for each fiscal year under paragraph (1) 

26 may not exceed the amount equal to the charges for 


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1 tuition for all Native American Indian students of 

2 that college who were not residents of the State in 

3 which the college is located and who were enrolled 

4 in the college for academic year 2012–2013. 

5 ‘‘(b) TREATMENT OF PAYMENT.—Any amounts re6 ceived by an eligible college under this section shall be 

7 treated as a reimbursement from the State in which the 

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

9 fulfillment of any Federal mandate upon the State to 

10 admit Native American Indian students free of charge of 

11 tuition. 

12 ‘‘(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec13 tion shall be construed to relieve any State from any man14 date the State may have under Federal law to reimburse 

15 a college for each academic year— 

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

17 students enrolled in the college who are not residents 

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

19 amount of charges for tuition for such students for 

20 such academic year that exceeds the amount re21 ceived under this section for such academic year; 

22 and 

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

24 students enrolled in the college who are residents of 

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


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1 equal to the charges for tuition for such students for 

2 such academic year. 

3 ‘‘(d) DEFINITION OF NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN

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

5 Indian students’ includes reference to the term ‘Indian pu6 pils’ as that term has been utilized in Federal statutes 

7 imposing a mandate upon any college or State to provide 

8 tuition-free education to Native American Indian students 

9 in fulfillment of a condition under which the college or 

10 State received its original grant of land and facilities from 

11 the United States.’’. 

12 SEC. 4. OFFSET. 

13 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi14 sion of law, $15,000,000 in appropriated discretionary 

15 funds are hereby rescinded, on a pro rata basis, by ac16 count, from all available unobligated funds. 

17 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Director of the Office of 

18 Management and Budget shall determine and identify 

19 from which appropriation accounts the rescission under 

20 subsection (a) shall apply and the amount of such rescis21 sion that shall apply to each such account. Not later than 

22 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Direc23 tor of the Office of Management and Budget shall submit 

24 a report to the Secretary of the Treasury and Congress 


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1 of the accounts and amounts determined and identified for 

2 rescission under the preceding sentence. 

3 (c) EXCEPTION.—This section shall not apply to the 

4 unobligated funds of the Department of Defense, the De5 partment of Veterans Affairs, or the Department of Edu6 cation, or any unobligated funds available to the Depart7 ment of the Interior for the postsecondary education of 

8 Native American Indian students. 

Æ 


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