IIB
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1992
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
OCTOBER 11, 2001
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions
AN ACT
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to expand
the opportunities for higher education via telecommuni-
cations.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
HR 1992 RFS
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Internet Equity and
Education Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. EXCEPTION TO 50 PERCENT CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE LIMITATIONS.
(a) DEFINITION OF INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDU-
CATION FOR TITLE IV PURPOSES.—Section 102(a) of the
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002(a)) is
amended by adding at the end the following new para-
graph:
‘‘(7) EXCEPTION
TO
LIMITATION
BASED
ON
COURSE
OF
STUDY.—Courses offered via tele-
communications (as defined in section 484(l)(4))
shall not be considered to be correspondence courses
for purposes of subparagraph (A) or (B) of para-
graph (3) for any institution that—
‘‘(A) is participating in either or both of
the loan programs under part B or D of title
IV on the date of enactment of the Internet Eq-
uity and Education Act of 2001;
‘‘(B) has a cohort default rate (as deter-
mined under section 435(m)) for each of the 3
most recent fiscal years for which data are
available that is less than 10 percent; and
‘‘(C)(i) has notified the Secretary, in a
form and manner prescribed by the Secretary
HR 1992 RFS
(including such information as the Secretary
may require to meet the requirements of clause
(ii)), of the election by such institution to qual-
ify as an institution of higher education by
means of the provisions of this paragraph; and
‘‘(ii) the Secretary has not, within 90 days
after such notice, and the receipt of any infor-
mation required under clause (i), notified the
institution that the election by such institution
would pose a significant risk to Federal funds
and the integrity of programs under title IV.’’.
(b) DEFINITION OF ELIGIBLE STUDENT.—Section
484(l)(1) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
1091(l)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the following
new subparagraph:
‘‘(C) EXCEPTION TO 50 PERCENT LIMITA-
TION.—Notwithstanding the 50 percent limita-
tion in subparagraph (A), a student enrolled in
a course of instruction described in such sub-
paragraph shall not be considered to be enrolled
in correspondence courses if the student is en-
rolled in an institution that—
‘‘(i) is participating in either or both
of the loan programs under part B or D of
title IV on the date of enactment of the
HR 1992 RFS
Internet Equity and Education Act of
2001;
‘‘(ii) has a cohort default rate (as de-
termined under section 435(m)) for each of
the 3 most recent fiscal years for which
data are available that is less than 10 per-
cent; and
‘‘(iii)(I) has notified the Secretary, in
form and manner prescribed by the Sec-
retary (including such information as the
Secretary may require to meet the require-
ments of subclause (II)), of the election by
such institution to qualify its students as
eligible students by means of the provisions
of this subparagraph; and
‘‘(II) the Secretary has not, within 90
days after such notice, and the receipt of
any information required under subclause
(I), notified the institution that the elec-
tion by such institution would pose a sig-
nificant risk to Federal funds and the in-
tegrity of programs under title IV.’’.