Department of Education Accountability Act

Bill: 115-s-1138
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT]
Introduced: 2017-05-16
Policy area: Education
Subjects: Appropriations

Congressional oversight

Department of Education

Education programs funding

Government information and archives
Latest action: action_date: 2017-05-16
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Summaries:
action_date: 2017-05-16
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Department of Education Accountability Act</b></p> <p>This bill requires the Department of Education to consider all&nbsp;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and every seven days thereafter, $500,000 of the unobligated balances from the Office of the Secretary of Education is rescinded until the Secretary of Education certifies compliance with this requirement.</p>

tv_txt: II 115th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1138 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.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Department of Education Accountability Act . 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effective on the date that is 7 days after the date of enactment of this Act, and every 7 days thereafter, there are rescinded from the unobligated balances made available for the Office of the Secretary of Education, $500,000.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.