Title: Expanding Access to Graduate Education Act of 2019
Policy area: Education

Summary:
Expanding Access to Graduate Education Act of 2019
This bill allows income-eligible graduate students who received Pell Grants during their undergraduate education to utilize their remaining Pell Grant eligibility toward their first graduate degree, subject to the existing 12-semester duration limit. Currently, Pell Grants are available only to undergraduate students.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3334 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3334

  To expand access to graduate education by amending the Federal Pell 
           Grant program to include postbaccalaureate study.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 19, 2019

 Ms. Kuster of New Hampshire (for herself, Mr. Burchett, Ms. Schrier, 
  Mr. Upton, and Mr. Rouda) introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Education and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To expand access to graduate education by amending the Federal Pell 
           Grant program to include postbaccalaureate study.

    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 ``Expanding Access to Graduate 
Education Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. FEDERAL PELL GRANTS FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS.

    Section 401 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a) 
is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by inserting ``or as a 
        postbaccalaureate student in accordance with subsection 
        (c)(1),'' after ``as an undergraduate,''; and
            (2) by amending subsection (c)(1) to read as follows:
    ``(c) Period of Eligibility for Grants.--(1) The period during 
which a student may receive Federal Pell Grants shall be the period 
required for the completion of the first undergraduate baccalaureate 
course of study being pursued by that student at the institution at 
which the student is in attendance except that--
            ``(A) any period during which the student is enrolled in a 
        noncredit or remedial course of study as defined in paragraph 
        (2) shall not be counted for the purpose of this paragraph; and
            ``(B) the period during which a student may receive Federal 
        Pell Grants shall also include the period required for the 
        completion of the first postbaccalaureate course of study in a 
        case in which--
                    ``(i) the student received a Federal Pell Grant 
                during the period required for the completion of the 
                student's first undergraduate baccalaureate course of 
                study for at least 1 but fewer than 12 semesters, or 
                the equivalent of at least 1 but fewer than 12 
                semesters, as determined under paragraph (5);
                    ``(ii) the student would otherwise be eligible for 
                a Federal Pell Grant, but for the completion of such 
                baccalaureate course of study; and
                    ``(iii) the period during which the student 
                receives Federal Pell Grants does not exceed the 
                student's duration limits under paragraph (5).''.
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