Higher Education Affordability Resource Act

Bill: 108-hr-3618
Sponsor: Rep. Menendez, Robert [D-NJ-13]
Introduced: 2003-11-21 in the House
Policy area: Education
Subjects: Bilingualism
Child welfare
College administration
College costs
Community colleges
Compensatory education
Counseling
Crime and Law Enforcement
Debtor and creditor
Depressed areas
Disabled
Economics and Public Finance
Education of the disadvantaged
Education savings accounts
Educational counseling
Emergency Management
Emergency medicine
Families
Federal aid to education
Federally-guaranteed loans
Finance and Financial Sector
Fire fighters
Government Operations and Politics
Government lending
Health
Higher education
Income tax
Interest
Interest rates
Married people
Mathematics
Medical education
Mentoring
Nurses
Nursing education
Paramedical personnel
Police
Scholarships
Science, Technology, Communications
Scientific education
Social Welfare
Social work
Special education
Student aid
Student loan funds
Tax credits
Taxation
Teacher education
Teacher supply and demand
Teachers
Technical education
Wealth

Summary:
action_date: 2003-11-21
text: 
Higher Education Affordability Resource Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to include coverage of other qualified higher education expenses under the HOPE scholarship tax credit.
 
Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to establish a program of student loan forgiveness for the following qualified public service employees: (1) highly qualified teachers in low-income communities; (2) highly qualified teachers of mathematics, science, and bilingual and special education; (3) nurses who serve low-income or needy communities in a clinical setting or as members of the nursing faculty at an accredited school of nursing; (4) child welfare workers who have completed a degree in social work or a related field with a focus on serving children and families in public or private child welfare services; and (5) firefighters, police officers, or emergency medical technicians (first responders) who serve low-income communities.
 
Directs the Secretary of Education to allow a student to receive two Pell grants during a single award year under certain conditions. (Currently only authorizes allowing this on a case-by-case basis under such conditions.)
 
Excludes from consideration as student assets, for purposes of HEA student financial needs analysis, qualified education benefits from prepayment or savings plans that meet certain IRC requirements, namely: (1) program described under specified IRC provisions; (2) State tuition programs; or (3) Coverdell education savings accounts.
 
Requires lenders to provide certain student loan borrowers with special transition assistance plans at specified interest rates.
 
Establishes a program to support academic transfer credits, to help students complete bachelor's degrees, through developing and implementing articulation and guaranteed transfer agreements between institutions of higher education (IHEs). Directs the Secretary to award grants to a partnership that includes two or more IHEs, at least one of which offers a baccalaureate or postbaccalaureate degree, for: (1) policy development; (2) support services for participating students; (3) academic program enhancements at the community or technical college; and (4) identifying barriers that inhibit student transfers.
 
Revises provisions relating to financial aid administrator discretion. Prohibits an eligible institution from refusing to certify, or reduce the amount certified for, a loan under the part B Federal Family Education Loan Program in order to require the student to borrow a loan under the part D Federal Perkins Loans program if the student has remaining loan eligibility under part B.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2004-01-30
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness.
action_date: 2003-11-21
text: Referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2003-11-21
text: Referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2003-11-21
text: Referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2003-11-21
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2003-11-21
text: Introduced in House