Title: Common Sense Opportunities Act
Policy area: Education

Summary:
Common Sense Opportunities Act
This bill amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to modify provisions concerning the federal TRIO programs (programs designed to identify and provide services for students from disadvantaged backgrounds), including to prohibit the Department of Education (ED) from rejecting an application for student assistance solely because it contains a technical error, unless ED notifies the applicant of the error and the applicant does not correct it by the resubmission deadline.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3535 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3535

 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to clarify the treatment of 
  technical errors in applications for Federal TRIO programs, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

            October 1 (legislative day, September 28), 2018

Mr. Tester (for himself, Mr. Merkley, and Ms. Klobuchar) 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 to clarify the treatment of 
  technical errors in applications for Federal TRIO programs, and for 
                            other purposes.

    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 ``Common Sense Opportunities Act''.

SEC. 2. APPLICATION STATUS.

    Section 402A(c)(7) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1070a-11(c)(7)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``The Secretary shall inform each entity 
        operating programs'' and inserting the following:
                    ``(A) In general.--The Secretary shall inform each 
                entity operating programs''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(B) Deadline review.--Not later than 6 months 
                after the date of enactment of the Common Sense 
                Opportunities Act, the Secretary shall--
                            ``(i) review the Department's history of 
                        complying with the not less than 8 month 
                        notification deadlines provided under 
                        subparagraph (A), including instances of when 
                        and why the Department failed to meet such a 
                        deadline;
                            ``(ii) identify whether such deadlines 
                        could be better aligned with the program year 
                        of entities operating programs under this 
                        chapter to prevent disruption for such entities 
                        and the services the entities provide; and
                            ``(iii) adjust the Department's procedures 
                        based on the findings gained pursuant to 
                        clauses (i) and (ii).
                    ``(C) Report.--The Secretary shall submit a report 
                to Congress on findings gained pursuant to subparagraph 
                (B) and any adjustments made by the Department based on 
                the findings.''.

SEC. 3. TREATMENT OF TECHNICAL ERRORS IN APPLICATIONS.

    Section 402A(c)(8) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1070a-11(c)(8)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(D) Treatment of technical errors in 
                applications.--
                            ``(i) In general.--Except as provided in 
                        clause (ii), the Secretary may not reject an 
                        application for a grant or contract under this 
                        chapter solely because such application 
                        contains a technical error.
                            ``(ii) Exception.--The Secretary may reject 
                        an application for a grant or contract under 
                        this chapter solely because such application 
                        contains a technical error only if--
                                    ``(I) the Secretary provides notice 
                                of the technical error by email and 
                                phone to the primary contact person, 
                                authorized representative, and project 
                                director identified in the application 
                                and, as part of such notice, 
                                specifically identifies the technical 
                                error in the text of the application;
                                    ``(II) during a period of not fewer 
                                than 7 business days after providing 
                                notice to the applicant under subclause 
                                (I), and in accordance with clause 
                                (iii), the Secretary allows the 
                                applicant to submit a revised 
                                application that corrects the technical 
                                error identified in such notice; and
                                    ``(III) the applicant--
                                            ``(aa) does not submit to 
                                        the Secretary a revised 
                                        application that corrects the 
                                        technical error identified in 
                                        the notice under subclause (I) 
                                        before the expiration of the 
                                        period described in subclause 
                                        (II); or
                                            ``(bb) submits to the 
                                        Secretary a revised application 
                                        that contains a new technical 
                                        error or does not correct the 
                                        technical error identified in 
                                        the notice under subclause (I).
                            ``(iii) Treatment of revised 
                        applications.--The Secretary shall treat a 
                        revised application submitted under clause 
                        (ii)(II) in the same manner as a timely 
                        submitted application that did not contain the 
                        technical error corrected in such revised 
                        application. The peer review score of a revised 
                        application submitted under clause (ii)(II) 
                        shall not be reviewable by any officer or 
                        employee of the Department of Education other 
                        than the Secretary.
                            ``(iv) Technical error defined.--In this 
                        subparagraph, the term `technical error' means 
                        a nonsubstantive error in an application, 
                        including an error in formatting, spacing, 
                        number of pages, font size or style, and an 
                        error in rounding or any other typographical 
                        error in a proposed budget.''.

SEC. 4. NOTIFICATIONS TO CONGRESS.

    Section 402H of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a-
18) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e) Notifications to Congressional Offices.--The Secretary shall 
notify each member office of Congress at the time a grant or contract 
under this chapter is awarded that--
            ``(1) identifies each entity that received a grant or 
        contract under this chapter during the period covered by the 
        notification that is located in the State of the member of 
        Congress, in the case of a Senator, or in the district of the 
        member of Congress, in the case of a Representative, and 
        indicates the dollar amount of each such grant or contract; and
            ``(2) identifies each entity that applied for, but did not 
        receive, a grant or contract under this chapter during the 
        period covered by the notification that is located in the State 
        of the member of Congress, in the case of a Senator, or in the 
        district of the member of Congress, in the case of a 
        Representative, and indicates the reason that the entity did 
        not receive the grant or contract for which it applied.''.
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