Title: Department of Education Accountability Act
Policy area: Education

Summary:
Department of Education Accountability Act
This bill requires the Department of Education to consider all FY2017 grant submissions in the Upward Bound program without regard to whether formatting requirements were met. Effective seven days after enactment and every seven days thereafter, $500,000 of the unobligated balances from the Office of the Secretary of Education is rescinded until the Secretary of Education certifies compliance with this requirement.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1138 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1138

    To rescind $500,000 a week from the Office of the Secretary of 
  Education until the Secretary of Education reconsiders Upward Bound 
  applications that were rejected due to arbitrary formatting issues.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 16, 2017

  Mr. Tester introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To rescind $500,000 a week from the Office of the Secretary of 
  Education until the Secretary of Education reconsiders Upward Bound 
  applications that were rejected due to arbitrary formatting issues.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Department of Education 
Accountability Act''.

SEC. 2. RESCISSION OF FUNDS.

    (a) Requiring Review of All Upward Bound Applications.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law or any policy of the 
Department of Education, the Secretary of Education shall consider all 
applications that were submitted for a grant under section 402C of the 
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a-13), for the grant 
competition under such section for fiscal year 2017, without regard as 
to whether the application satisfied any formatting requirements, 
including font type or size, line spacing, or margins.
    (b) Compliance.--As soon as the Secretary of Education has ensured 
that the Department of Education has complied with subsection (a), the 
Secretary shall prepare and submit a certification of such compliance 
to Congress and to the Secretary of the Treasury.
    (c) Rescission.--
            (1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), effective on the 
        date that is 7 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
        and every 7 days thereafter, there are rescinded from the 
        unobligated balances made available for the Office of the 
        Secretary of Education, $500,000.
            (2) Compliance.--Paragraph (1) shall cease to have force or 
        effect on the date on which the Secretary of Education submits 
        the certification required under subsection (b).
            (3) Use of funds.--Any amounts rescinded under paragraph 
        (1) shall be returned to the Treasury and used for deficit 
        reduction.
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