Title: Foreign Medical School Accountability Fairness Act of 2017
Policy area: Education

Summary:
Foreign Medical School Accountability Fairness Act of 2017
This bill amends title I (General Provisions) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to revise institutional eligibility criteria for a foreign graduate medical school to participate in federal student aid programs.
Current law requires a foreign graduate medical school to meet certain requirements—a minimum pass rate threshold on the medical licensing exam and a minimum percentage of foreign students—to participate in the Federal Direct Loan (DL) program, unless the Department of Education (ED) establishes alternative standards or the school has a grandfathered clinical training program. This bill terminates ED's authority to establish alternative standards and eliminates the exemption for a school with a grandfathered clinical training program (i.e., it requires all foreign graduate medical schools to meet minimum requirements to participate in the DL program).

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 850 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 850

    To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish fair and 
   consistent eligibility requirements for graduate medical schools 
            operating outside the United States and Canada.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                April 5 (legislative day, April 4), 2017

Mr. Durbin (for himself and Mr. Cassidy) 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 establish fair and 
   consistent eligibility requirements for graduate medical schools 
            operating outside the United States and Canada.

    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 ``Foreign Medical School 
Accountability Fairness Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

    To establish consistent eligibility requirements for graduate 
medical schools operating outside of the United States and Canada in 
order to increase accountability and protect American students and 
taxpayer dollars.

SEC. 3. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Three for-profit schools in the Caribbean receive 
        nearly \3/4\ of all Federal funding under title IV of the 
        Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.) that goes 
        to students enrolled at foreign graduate medical schools, 
        despite those three schools being exempt from meeting the same 
        eligibility requirements as the majority of graduate medical 
        schools located outside of the United States and Canada.
            (2) The National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and 
        Accreditation and the Department of Education recommend that 
        all foreign graduate medical schools should be required to meet 
        the same eligibility requirements to participate in Federal 
        funding under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 
        U.S.C. 1070 et seq.).
            (3) The attrition rate at United States medical schools 
        averaged 3.4 percent in 2014, while rates at for-profit 
        Caribbean medical schools have been known to reach 30 percent.
            (4) In 2016, residency match rates for foreign trained 
        graduates averaged 54 percent compared to 94 percent for 
        graduates of medical schools in the United States.
            (5) On average, students at for-profit medical schools 
        operating outside of the United States and Canada amass more 
        student debt than those at medical schools in the United 
        States.

SEC. 4. REPEAL GRANDFATHER PROVISIONS.

    Section 102(a)(2) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1002(a)(2)) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking clause (i) and 
        inserting the following:
                            ``(i) in the case of a graduate medical 
                        school located outside the United States--
                                    ``(I) at least 60 percent of those 
                                enrolled in, and at least 60 percent of 
                                the graduates of, the graduate medical 
                                school outside the United States were 
                                not persons described in section 
                                484(a)(5) in the year preceding the 
                                year for which a student is seeking a 
                                loan under part D of title IV; and
                                    ``(II) at least 75 percent of the 
                                individuals who were students or 
                                graduates of the graduate medical 
                                school outside the United States or 
                                Canada (both nationals of the United 
                                States and others) taking the 
                                examinations administered by the 
                                Educational Commission for Foreign 
                                Medical Graduates received a passing 
                                score in the year preceding the year 
                                for which a student is seeking a loan 
                                under part D of title IV;''; and
            (2) in subparagraph (B)(iii), by adding at the end the 
        following:
                                    ``(V) Expiration of authority.--The 
                                authority of a graduate medical school 
                                described in subclause (I) to qualify 
                                for participation in the loan programs 
                                under part D of title IV pursuant to 
                                this clause shall expire beginning on 
                                the first July 1 following the date of 
                                enactment of the Foreign Medical School 
                                Accountability Fairness Act of 2017.''.

SEC. 5. LOSS OF ELIGIBILITY.

    If a graduate medical school loses eligibility to participate in 
the loan programs under part D of title IV of the Higher Education Act 
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087a et seq.) due to the enactment of the 
amendments made by section 4, then a student enrolled at such graduate 
medical school on or before the date of enactment of this Act may, 
notwithstanding such loss of eligibility, continue to be eligible to 
receive a loan under such part D while attending such graduate medical 
school in which the student was enrolled upon the date of enactment of 
this Act, subject to the student continuing to meet all applicable 
requirements for satisfactory academic progress, until the earliest 
of--
            (1) withdrawal by the student from the graduate medical 
        school;
            (2) completion of the program of study by the student at 
        the graduate medical school; or
            (3) the fourth June 30 after such loss of eligibility.
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