zli12321/Bills huggingface dataset:
Student Financial Aid Simplification Act - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to determine students' need and eligibility for title IV assistance, unless they qualify for the simplified needs test or expect no family contribution, by using tax return information regarding those students or their parents that this Act authorizes the Secretary of Education to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Requires those students to submit to the Secretary certain supplementary information not available from the IRS.

Requires the Secretary to provide institutions of higher education and states with that tax return information, without charge, for the purposes of processing loan applications and determining need and eligibility for institutional and state financial aid.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to disclose tax return information to the Department of Education regarding taxpayers or their dependents whose need and eligibility for assistance under title IV of the HEA is based in whole or part on their income or their parents' income.

Date: 2013-05-16
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Foster Youth Higher Education Opportunities Act - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to inform students who indicate on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form that they are or were in the foster care system of their potential eligibility for federal student aid, including the specific federal programs under which they may be eligible for assistance.

Requires the Secretary to provide foster youth with that same information on the Department of Education's website.

Date: 2013-05-22
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
American Dream Accounts Act of 2013 - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award competitive grants to eligible entities so each can establish and administer American Dream Accounts for a group of at least 30 low-income public school students who, at the time the entities apply for a grant, are attending a grade no higher than ninth grade.

Lists as eligible entities: (1) state educational agencies, (2) local educational agencies, (3) charter schools, (4) charter management organizations, (5) institutions of higher education (IHEs), (6) nonprofit organizations, (7) entities experienced in educational savings or assisting low-income students attain higher education, and (8) consortia of two or more of these entities.

Describes an American Dream Account as a personal online account for low-income students that monitors their progress toward higher education and includes a college savings account that provides some tax-preferred accumulation.

Requires American Dream Accounts to provide students with opportunities, either online or in person, to: (1) attain financial literacy; (2) learn about preparing for enrollment in an IHE; and (3) identify their skills or interests, including career interests.

Requires grantees, subject to federal privacy laws and regulations, to allow vested stakeholders to have secure Internet access to an American Dream Account, but not the college savings account portion of that Account.

Prohibits grantees from using their grant to provide the initial deposit into the college savings account portion of a student's American Dream Account.

Prohibits the funds in those college savings accounts from being considered in making federal student financial aid determinations.

Date: 2013-05-23
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Assisting Students with Loans Act - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend the 3.4% interest rate on Direct Stafford loans first disbursed to undergraduate students between July 1, 2011, and July 1, 2013, to Direct Stafford loans first disbursed to undergraduate students between July 1, 2011, and July 1, 2015.

Amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to repeal provisions establishing and appropriating funds to the Prevention and Public Health Fund (a Fund to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs). Rescinds any unobligated balances appropriated to such Fund.

Date: 2013-05-23
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Growing Education Achievement Training Academies for Teachers and Principals Act or the GREAT Teachers and Principals Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award grants to states to: (1) create or approve teacher or principal preparation academies and create or designate authorizers of those academies; (2) support the creation and operation of such academies; and (3) award subgrants to nonprofit entities to establish or expand such academies, measure their effectiveness, or recruit enrollees who have demonstrated strong potential to be effective teachers or principals.

Requires each academy to enter into a charter with an authorizer that specifies the goals and outcomes expected of the academy and the obligations of the authorizer. Prohibits authorizers from renewing an academy's charter if it fails to produce the minimum number or percentage of effective teachers or principals specified in its charter.

Requires each academy to provide: (1) enrollees with a significant portion of their training through clinical preparation that partners them with successful teacher or principal mentors, and (2) certificates of completion only to graduates who demonstrate a track record of success in preparing students for college and careers.

Requires state grantees to recognize a certificate of completion from an academy as at least the equivalent of a master's degree in education for the purposes of teacher or principal hiring, retention, compensation, and promotion in the state.

Directs the Secretary to enter into an interagency agreement with the Corporation for National and Community Service under which the Corporation approves national service positions for candidates at each teacher or principal preparation academy receiving financial assistance under this Act.

Date: 2013-05-23
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship Improvements Act of 2013 - Expands the eligibility of children for educational assistance under the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) post-9/11 educational assistance program to include the child of a person who, on or after September 11, 2001, is awarded the Purple Heart for an injury and dies as a result of that injury within 60 days after discharge or release from active-duty service.

Date: 2013-05-23
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Diploma and Accreditation Integrity Protection Act - Prohibits any accreditor from being considered a reliable authority as to the quality of education or training offered by degree-granting institutions for any purpose related to immigration, federal employment, or any other federal activity, unless the accreditor is recognized by the Secretary of Education.

Considers only a degree from a degree-granting institution that is accredited by such an accreditor to be acceptable in situations when a degree from an institution of higher education (IHE) is required or taken into consideration for the purpose of appointing, promoting, or improving the pay of a federal employee.

Directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to define as an unfair and deceptive act or practice: (1) certain offerings of academic, professional, or occupational degrees by entities that are not IHEs or are not accredited by an accreditor recognized by the Secretary, any other appropriate federal agency, or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation; or (2) the issuing of any accreditation to a degree-granting institution by an accreditor that lacks such recognition.

Date: 2013-06-04
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Higher Education and Skills Obtainment Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to replace the Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning tax credits with a tax credit for full and part-time post-secondary students equal to 100% of qualified tuition and related expenses up to $2,000, plus 25% of such expenses as exceeds $2,000 but not more than $4,000. Reduces the allowable amount of such credit to the extent that household income exceeds 400% of the federal poverty line. Repeals the tax deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses.

Expresses the sense of Congress that any revenue saved by the enactment of this Act shall be applied to the currently projected Pell Grant funding shortfall in 2015 and to deficit reduction

Date: 2013-06-04
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Taxation
Teaching Children to Save Lives Act of 2013 - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award grants to local educational agencies or public elementary or secondary schools to implement nationally recognized cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) training courses.

Allows a grant to be used to purchase an AED training device if the grantee implements or has implemented an AED training program in conjunction with a CPR training program.

Date: 2013-06-11
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Get Relief from Academic Debt Act of 2013 or the GRAD Act of 2013 - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to allow borrowers of Direct Stafford Loans to opt to extend the period before they must begin to repay such loans to one year after they cease to carry at least one-half the normal full-time academic workload. (Currently, the repayment period for Direct Stafford Loans begins six months after borrowers cease to carry at least one-half the normal full-time academic workload.)

Subsidizes the interest that accrues on Direct Stafford Loans for the first six months of that extended grace period.

Makes this Act applicable to Direct Stafford Loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2013.

Date: 2013-06-13
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Local Education Authority Returns Now Act - Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to make an annual determination of states that have chosen to opt-out of K-12 education grant programs.

Requires the Secretary of Education to determine credits due to states as opt-out state education amounts.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow individual taxpayers in states that opt-out a refundable tax credit for a share of the opt-out amount creditable to such states.

Date: 2013-06-17
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Taxation
Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act or the A PLUS Act - Allows each state to submit to the Secretary of Education a declaration of intent, applicable for up to five years, permitting it to receive federal funds on a consolidated basis that would otherwise be directed toward specific programs furthering the stated purpose of title I (Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

Requires each declaration to be formulated by a combination of specified State Authorizing Officials or by referendum and to list the programs for which consolidated funding is requested. Allows states to use such funds for any educational purpose permitted by state law, but requires them to make certain assurances that they will use fiscal control and fund accounting procedures, abide by federal civil rights laws, and advance educational opportunities for the disadvantaged. Allows states to amend their declarations.

Allows each declaration state to adopt new academic assessments and standards or apply those described under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, but requires each state to have a single system of assessments and standards that includes student proficiency goals.

Requires each declaration state to: (1) inform the public about its student achievement assessment system; (2) report annually on student progress toward the state's proficiency standards, disaggregating performance data by specified student groups; and (3) keep aggregate spending on elementary and secondary education at no less than 90% of such spending for the school year coinciding with this Act's enactment.

 Limits administrative expenses.

Requires each declaration state to provide for the equitable participation of private school children and teachers in the activities assisted under its declaration of intent.

Date: 2013-06-20
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Collaborative College Services Act - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to authorize nonprofit institutions of higher education (IHEs) to make payments to third-party entities for services that include student recruitment and are based on the amount of tuition that the IHE generates from student enrollment if the third-party entity: (1) is not otherwise affiliated with the IHE, (2) does not provide incentive payments to its employees for their success in enrolling students or securing financial aid for them, (3) is paid by the IHE for services that are not limited to student recruitment services, and (4) will not make student recruitment information available to any other person or entity.

Date: 2013-06-26
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Federal Adjustment in Reporting Student Credit Act of 2013 or the FAIR Student Credit Act of 2013 - Amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act, with respect to the responsibilities of furnishers of information to consumer reporting agencies, to provide for the removal of a previously reported default regarding a qualified education loan from a consumer report if the consumer of the loan meets the requirements of a loan rehabilitation program, where the number of consecutive on-time monthly payments are equal to the number of payments specified in a default reduction program under the Higher Education Act of 1965.

Permits a consumer to obtain such rehabilitation benefits only once per loan.

Requires the Comptroller General (GAO) to report on any hurdles borrowers experience with the private loan rehabilitation program.

Date: 2013-06-27
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Student Loan Opportunity Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to tax-exempt private activity bond financing, to eliminate the restriction on nonprofit corporations that acquire student loan notes to notes incurred under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (thus allowing such corporations to access tax-exempt financing for other types of student loans).

Date: 2013-06-28
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Taxation
Keep Student Loans Affordable Act of 2013 - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend the 3.4% interest rate on Direct Stafford loans first disbursed to undergraduate students between July 1, 2011, and July 1, 2013, to Direct Stafford loans first disbursed to undergraduate students between July 1, 2011, and July 1, 2014.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to modify rules for required distributions from tax-exempt pension plans to an employee who dies before such employee's entire interest is distributed to require such interest to be distributed within five years after the death of such employee, subject to exceptions for an eligible designated beneficiary and surviving spouse of such employee. Defines "eligible designated beneficiary" to include a disabled or chronically-ill individual. Exempts from such modification a binding annuity contract in effect on the enactment date of this Act.

Date: 2013-06-28
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Higher Education and Employment Transparency Act - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to make publicly available on the College Navigator website the job placement information that schools who are participating in that Act's title IV (Student Assistance) programs are required to provide to prospective and enrolled students.

Requires those schools to supplement that job placement information by indicating whether or not the jobs their graduates obtain are paid jobs or require any postsecondary education.

Requires those schools to include on their websites, and the Secretary to include on the College Navigator website, a link to the appropriate section of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website that provides information from the Occupational Employment Statistics program and the Occupational Outlook Handbook of the BLS.

Date: 2013-06-28
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Supporting Academic Freedom through Regulatory Relief Act - (Sec. 2) Repeals certain Department of Education regulations that for purposes of determining whether a school is eligible to participate in programs under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA): (1) require institutions of higher education (IHEs) and postsecondary vocational institutions (except religious schools) to be legally authorized by the state in which they are situated, (2) delineate what such legal authorization requires of states and schools, (3) impose standards and disclosure requirements on programs that prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation, and (4) define "credit hour."

Restores regulations that were in effect on June 30, 2011, but were amended by the regulations that this Act repeals.

Prohibits the Secretary of Education from promulgating or enforcing any regulation or rule not in effect on the date of this Act's enactment regarding: (1) the state authorization for IHEs to operate within a state, or (2) the definition or application of the term "gainful employment." Ends that prohibition when a law is enacted that extends by at least two fiscal years the authorization or duration of one or more programs under the HEA.

Prohibits the Secretary from promulgating or enforcing any regulation or rule that defines "credit hour" for any purpose under the HEA.

(Sec. 3) Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the HEA to authorize nonprofit IHEs to make payments to third-party entities for services that include student recruitment and are based on the amount of tuition that the IHE generates from student enrollment if the third-party entity: (1) is not affiliated with the IHE, (2) does not provide incentive payments to its employees for their success in enrolling students or securing financial aid for them, (3) is not paid by the IHE solely or separately for student recruitment services, and (4) will not make student recruitment information available to any other person or entity.

Date: 2013-07-10
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
All Children are Equal Act or the ACE Act - Amends part A of title I (Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to alter the formula for determining the share of targeted grant funds and education finance incentive grant funds a local educational agency (LEA) receives.

Alters the formula so that LEAs that have a high percentage of impoverished students, but a comparatively low number of such students, receive a higher allocation of such funding.

Date: 2013-07-11
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Opportunities for Success Act of 2013 - Directs the Secretary of Education to award grants to institutions of higher education for use in providing their students with financial support to engage in internships reasonably associated with their studies.

Requires support recipients to be full-time or half-time students who are eligible for Federal Pell Grants.

Sets the student support level for unpaid internships at: (1) the higher of the federal or state minimum wage for each hour of the internship, if the internship occurs while the student is enrolled in classes; and (2) the student's reasonable cost of living expenses, if the internship occurs while the student is not enrolled in classes.

Sets the support level for paid internships by reducing the amount the student would receive for an unpaid internship by the amount the paid internship provides to the student.

Caps the total support a student may receive for full-time and part-time internships.

Makes that support nontaxable and excludes it from the calculation of a student's need or eligibility for financial assistance under title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

Date: 2013-07-11
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Segal AmeriCorps Education Award Tax Relief Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from gross income any AmeriCorps educational awards provided under the National and Community Service Act of 1990.

Date: 2013-07-18
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Taxation
Directs the Secretary of Education to use any excess revenue generated by the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan program during a fiscal year to carry out the Federal Pell Grant program in the next fiscal year.

Date: 2013-07-31
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Support Educators and Reinvest in Valuable Education Act or the SERVE Act - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to increase, from $5,000 to $17,500, the amount of loan forgiveness available under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) and Direct Loan (DL) programs to highly qualified teachers who have been employed at a low income school in the same local educational agency (LEA) for five consecutive complete school years.

Requires those low income schools to be schools: (1) at which more than 30% of the students are impoverished, and (2) located within the school district of an LEA that is eligible for school improvement funds under title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

 Excepts PLUS loans under the FFEL and DL programs that are provided to the parents of dependent undergraduate students from that loan forgiveness program.

Includes consolidation loans in that loan forgiveness program, but only to the extent they are used to repay eligible FFELs or DLs.

Date: 2013-07-31
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Student Loan Accessibility Act - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend the 3.4% interest rate on Direct Stafford loans first disbursed to undergraduate students between July 1, 2011, and July 1, 2013, to Direct Stafford loans first disbursed to undergraduate students between July 1, 2011, and July 1, 2014.

Amends the federal criminal code to provide that a prisoner who is serving a term of imprisonment of more than one year, other than a term of life imprisonment, shall receive credit in addition to the time actually served at a rate of 84 days per year of sentence imposed if the Bureau of Prisons determines that the prisoner has displayed exemplary compliance with institutional disciplinary regulations.

Prohibits the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from implementing the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program. Requires any unobligated funds for that program to be expeditiously returned to the U.S. Treasury.

Date: 2013-07-31
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
National Collegiate Athletics Accountability Act or the NCAA Act - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require schools that have an intercollegiate athletic program and are participating in title IV programs to abstain from membership in a nonprofit athletic association unless the association:

 requires annual baseline concussion testing of student athletes on the active roster of teams participating in contact/collision or limited-contact/impact sports before they participate in any contact drills or activities; holds remedies for violations of its policies in abeyance until the schools and student athletes subject to those remedies have been afforded certain due process procedures; requires athletically-related student aid provided to student athletes who play contact/collision sports to be guaranteed for the duration of their attendance at the school, up to four years, and irrevocable for reasons related to skill or injury; and does not prevent schools from paying stipends to student athletes. Makes title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 inapplicable to any activity carried out by an institution of higher education to guarantee the continuance of student aid for student athletes in compliance with such membership requirements. (Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex or visual impairment under any education program that receives federal funds.)

Date: 2013-08-01
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Christopher Bryski Student Loan Protection Act or Christopher's Law - Amends the Truth in Lending Act to require lenders of private education loans to:

 describe clearly and conspicuously, in writing, the cosigners' obligations regarding such loans, including the effect a borrower's or cosigner's death, disability, or inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity would have on such obligations; require the borrower to designate an individual to have the legal authority to act on behalf of the borrower in the event of the borrower's death, disability, or inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity; and ensure that the borrower, and any cosigner, receives comprehensive information on the loan's terms and conditions and the borrower's responsibilities with respect to such loan. Directs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to publish a model form for describing a cosigner's obligations regarding private education loans.

Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to require institutions of higher education to provide borrowers of federal education loans information at their entrance counseling on:

 the effect their death, disability, or inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity would have on their federal and private education loans; any repayment, refinance, deferment, forbearance, or forgiveness opportunities available to the borrower, or cosigner, in the event of either individual's death, disability, or inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity; and the effect their death, disability, or inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity would have on their obligations and any cosigner's obligations with respect to the loan. Requires students applying for federal education loans to designate an individual who is to have the legal authority to act on their behalf with respect to such a loan in the event of their death, disability, or inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity.

Date: 2013-08-01
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
PLUS Loan Accessibility Act - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to suspend the provision making individuals with an adverse credit history ineligible for Federal Direct PLUS Loans until the Secretary of Education implements final rules on the proposed rules for federal student aid programs developed by a specified negotiated rulemaking committee. (PLUS Loans are provided to graduate or professional students or the parents of dependent undergraduate students.)

Date: 2013-08-01
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Career and Technical Education Equity Act - Amends the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 to revise hold harmless requirements for the allotment of career and technical education assistance grants to states. Prohibits a state from receiving an allotment for a fiscal year that is less than 90% of the allotment the state received for the preceding fiscal year. (Currently, no state may receive an allotment less than the one it received for FY1998.)

Date: 2013-08-02
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Labor and employment
College Savings Enhancement Act of 2013 - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revise specified regulations so as to include: (1) qualified prepaid tuition programs under the definition of a qualified institutional buyer (with respect to private resales of securities to institutions), and (2) as accredited investors any qualified prepaid tuition programs whose total assets exceed $5 million (with respect to Regulation D, governing the limited offer and sale of securities without registration under the Securities Act of 1933).

Defines, for purposes of such revisions, a "qualified prepaid tuition program" as a qualified tuition program (under which a person may purchase tuition credits or certificates on behalf of a designated beneficiary which entitle the beneficiary to the waiver or payment of the beneficiary's qualified higher education expenses), which is established and maintained by a state or state agency or instrumentality that satisfies certain other requirements of the Internal Revenue Code.

Date: 2013-08-02
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to allow a borrower of a loan under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan program to modify the interest rate on such a loan so that its interest rate is equal to the interest rate it would bear if first disbursed at the time of modification.

Fixes that interest rate for the life of the loan, unless the borrower elects to modify it again.

Date: 2013-08-02
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Warriors' Peer-Outreach Pilot Program Act - Directs the Secretary of Veteran Affairs (VA) to carry out a three-year pilot program to provide outreach and support services to veterans at institutions of higher learning that enable them to make more successful use of their entitlement to educational assistance.

Requires the Secretary to select one four-year public university, one community college, and one private nonprofit college at which to conduct the pilot program.

Requires the pilot program to provide peer-outreach and peer-support services to students at such institutions who are veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn by employing veterans who: (1) are using, or have successfully used, their entitlement to educational assistance; and (2) have served on active duty in a theater of combat operations.

Directs the Secretary to provide training to the veterans employed by the pilot program and to develop requirements and measures for assessing the effectiveness of program services.

Date: 2013-08-02
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Tuition Relief for Students Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend through 2017 the tax deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses.

Date: 2013-09-12
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Taxation
State Loan Access and Student Protection Act - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to exempt certain state education loans from the requirement that when an institution of higher education (IHE) recommends, promotes, or endorses such loans, there need to be at least two unaffiliated lenders of those loans on the school's preferred lender list.

Conditions that exemption on the IHE:

 only recommending, promoting, or endorsing such loans by providing students and families with information about the loans and providing financial aid packages that include such loans to students who have previously been awarded such loans; using a form, to be developed by the Secretary of Education, to disclose the terms and conditions of such loans to borrowers and compare them to the terms and conditions of Direct loans under part D (William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program) of title IV; placing such loans on their preferred list only if the loans' terms and conditions are at least as favorable as the terms and conditions on Direct loans; and prominently disclosing to borrowers the methods and criteria it used in deciding to recommend, promote, or endorse such loans.

Date: 2013-10-29
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Flexibility to Innovate for College Affordability Act - Directs the Secretary of Education to establish the Higher Education Regulatory Reform Task Force to prepare a report, that is to be submitted to Congress and made available on a publicly accessible website, on federal regulatory requirements for institutions of higher education (IHEs).

Requires the report to contain: (1) a list of rules that are determined to be outmoded, duplicative, ineffective, or excessively burdensome; (2) an analysis of how the costs of such rules outweigh their benefits; (3) recommendations to consolidate, modify, simplify, or repeal such rules and a description of the justification for and impact of such recommendations; and (4) recommendations on establishing a permanent entity to review new regulatory requirements affecting IHEs.

Requires the President to submit to Congress a legislative proposal for carrying out some or all of the recommendations contained in the report.

Establishes congressional procedures to expedite consideration of the President's proposal.

Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to authorize the Secretary to waive certain statutory or regulatory requirements under title IV to allow IHEs participating in the experimental sites initiative to increase the maximum federal Pell Grant and loan award amounts for students in proportion to the amount that their workload exceeds the minimum full-time academic workload. (The experimental sites initiative was established to test the effectiveness of providing participating IHEs with statutory and regulatory flexibility in awarding and disbursing student aid under title IV.)

Authorizes the waiver of statutory and regulatory requirements under title IV that might bias the results of experiments carried out by IHEs under the initiative to provide title IV assistance to: (1) students enrolled in remedial courses or competency-based learning programs, which are not accredited but are approved by the IHE and provide competencies for success in certain programs of study at the IHE; (2) students to pay test fees if the students could be awarded academic credit for prior learning based on the test results; and (3) secondary school students enrolled in courses at the IHE.

Requires the IHEs to demonstrate to the Secretary that these waivers would reduce the total cost of attendance for participating students.

Date: 2013-10-30
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Put School Counselors Where They're Needed Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to implement a demonstration project providing competitive, 4-year grants to at least 10 secondary schools that have a 4-year adjusted cohort graduation rate of 60% or lower, for the provision of additional school counselors and counselor resources.

Expresses the sense of Congress that grantees should provide one additional counselor for every 250 students at risk.

Requires the additional school counselors to serve primarily students identified as being at risk of not graduating in four years.

Makes grantees that demonstrate progress in improving their graduation rates eligible for subsequent grants.

Date: 2013-10-30
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
College Affordability Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to replace the Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning tax credits with a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that allows: (1) a 100% income tax credit, up to $2,500 in a taxable year, of the qualified tuition and related expenses (i.e., tuition, fees, and course materials) of a student at an institution of higher education who is carrying at least one half of a normal full-time work load; (2) a life-time aggregate credit amount of up to $10,000; and (3) refundability of a portion of such credit. Denies such credit to students who are convicted of a federal or state felony offense involving the possession or distribution of a controlled substance.

Allows an exclusion from gross income of any amount received as a Federal Pell Grant.

Establishes programs for: (1) periodic payments to students as qualified expenses are incurred during the taxable year, and (2) informing the public of the availability of the American Opportunity Tax Credit.

Date: 2013-10-30
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Taxation
Spouses of Heroes Education Act - Entitles to post-9/11 veterans' educational assistance the spouse (under current law, only the child) of a person who, on or after September 11, 2001, dies in the line of duty while serving on active duty as a member of the Armed Forces. Terminates such spouse's entitlement on the earlier of: (1) the date that is 15 years after the date on which the member died, and (2) the date of the spouse's remarriage.

Requires an individual entitled to such assistance and also to veterans' educational assistance under the Montgomery GI Bill to elect a single coverage.

Date: 2013-10-30
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
FAFSA Fairness Act of 2013 - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require the Secretary of Education to disclose, on the form notifying students of their expected family contribution, the special circumstances under which students may qualify as independent for purposes of the determination regarding their need and eligibility for title IV assistance.

Allows students who may qualify as independent on the basis of those special circumstances to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as independent students for purposes of the initial determination of their title IV assistance by a financial aid administrator at an institution of higher education to which they are applying.

Requires the financial aid administrators to: (1) provide those students with an initial determination regarding their title IV assistance in the same manner as, and by no later than the date that, they provide other independent students with that determination; and (2) use, in making a final determination regarding that assistance, the discretion provided to them under title IV to verify whether such students meet the special circumstances to qualify as independent students.

Date: 2013-11-12
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Prohibits the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) or a state approving agency from approving a program of education offered by an educational institution for purposes of an educational assistance program for veterans or members of the Selected Reserve or the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces unless any such institution that administers a priority enrollment system allows an eligible veteran, member, or dependent to enroll in courses at the earliest possible time.

Date: 2013-11-12
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Protecting Our Students and Taxpayers Act of 2013 or the POST Act of 2013 - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require proprietary institutions of higher education to derive at least 15% of their revenue from sources other than federal funds or become ineligible for title IV funding. (Currently, the 90/10 rule requires these schools to derive at least 10% of their revenue from sources other than title IV or become ineligible for title IV funding.)

Defines "federal funds" as federal financial assistance provided through a grant, contract, subsidy, loan, guarantee, insurance, or other means to a proprietary institution, including federal financial assistance that is provided to an institution on behalf of a student or to a student to attend the institution. Excludes monthly housing stipends provided under the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance program from consideration as federal funds.

Limits what a proprietary institution may treat as revenue to the school in calculating whether it derives at least 15% of its revenue from non-federal funds.

Date: 2013-11-14
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Technology, Equality and Accessibility in College and Higher Education Act or the TEACH Act - Directs the Access Board to develop accessibility guidelines for electronic instructional materials and related information technologies in institutions of higher education (IHEs).

Requires those guidelines to: (1) include performance criteria to ensure that electronic instructional materials and related information technologies are accessible to the blind and disabled; (2) be consistent with the standards for technical and functional performance criteria issued pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and (3) be, to the extent practicable, consistent with national and international accessibility standards for those materials and technologies.

Directs the Access Board to review and, as appropriate, amend the guidelines every three years to reflect technological advances or changes in electronic instructional materials and related information technologies.

Deems IHEs that use electronic instructional materials and related information technologies that comply with the guidelines to be in compliance with nondiscrimination provisions under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Date: 2013-11-15
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Stopping Unfair Collateral Consequences from Ending Student Success Act or the SUCCESS Act - Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to repeal a provision which makes persons convicted of drug offenses while receiving any grant, loan, or work assistance under title IV ineligible for that assistance for specified periods.

Date: 2013-11-15
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Affordable College Textbook Act - Directs the Secretary of Education to make competitive grants to institutions of higher education (IHEs) to support pilot programs that expand the use of open textbooks in order to achieve savings for students.

Requires the grants to be used for:

 professional development for IHE faculty and staff, including the search for and review of open textbooks; the creation or adaptation of open educational resources, especially open textbooks; the development or improvement of tools and informational resources that support the use of open textbooks; research evaluating the efficacy of using open textbooks to achieve savings for students; and partnerships with other entities to carry out the preceding activities. Requires the full and complete digital content of the educational resources created or adopted using such grant funds to be made available free of charge to the public: (1) on an easily accessible and interoperable website; and (2) in a machine readable, digital format that anyone can directly download, edit, and redistribute.

Directs the Secretary to give special consideration to grant applicants that demonstrate the greatest potential to:

 achieve the highest level of savings for students; expand the use of open textbooks at other IHEs; and produce open textbooks that are of the highest quality, that can be most easily utilized and adapted by faculty members, that correspond to the highest enrollment courses, and that are created or adopted in partnership with entities that will assist in their marketing and distribution. Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include any educational material developed to accompany a college textbook as supplemental material that is subject to college textbook information disclosure requirements.

Expresses the sense of Congress that IHEs should encourage the consideration of open textbooks by faculty within the generally accepted principles of academic freedom that establish the right and responsibility of faculty members to select the most appropriate course materials for their classes.

Date: 2013-11-19
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education
Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act - (Sec. 3) Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) every individual, regardless of gender, should have the opportunity to pursue an education free from the fear of discrimination; (2) educational exchanges promote institutional linkages between the United States and Pakistan; and (3) recipients of scholarships under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program (Program) should commit to improving their local communities. (The Program awards scholarships for university study to academically talented, financially needy Pakistani students.)

Encourages the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to continue to support Pakistani education initiatives, especially those for women.

(Sec. 4) Directs the USAID Administrator to award at least 50% of the scholarships available under the Program to women for each of calendar years 2014-2016.

Requires the scholarships to be awarded: (1) in accordance with existing scholarship criteria, and (2) for a range of disciplines to improve the employability of graduates and to meet the needs of the scholarship recipients.

 Directs the USAID Administrator to: (1) make every effort to award 50% of the scholarships available under the Program to Pakistani women; and (2) consult with, and leverage investments by, the Pakistani private sector and Pakistani diaspora communities in the United States to improve, expand, and sustain education programs in Pakistan.

(Sec. 5) Requires the USAID to brief Congress, annually for the next four years, on the implementation of this Act's requirements, including specified information regarding Program scholarships.

Date: 2013-11-21
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: International affairs
Know Before You Owe Private Student Loan Act of 2013 - Amends the Truth in Lending Act to require a lender, before issuing a private education loan for a student attending an institution of higher education (IHE), to obtain the IHE's certification of: (1) the student's enrollment status, (2) the student's cost of attendance, and (3) the difference between that cost and the student's estimated financial assistance. Eliminates the requirement that such lenders obtain a self-certification form from the private education loan applicant.

Allows a lender to issue such loan without a certification if there is no response from the relevant IHE within 15 business days of the lender's request for the certification.

Requires private educational lenders to: (1) send loan statements to borrowers at least once every three months a student is enrolled at an IHE; (2) notify the relevant IHE, in writing, of the loan amount and the student to whom it applies no later than the date funds are issued; and (3) submit an annual report to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB) containing information the CFPB requires concerning private student loans.

Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require IHEs, before providing lenders with certifications, to determine whether students have exhausted their options for title IV assistance and notify borrowers of: (1) the availability of such assistance, (2) their ability to choose their own private educational lender, (3) the impact of the proposed private education loan on their eligibility for other financial assistance, and (4) their right to accept or reject a private education loan within 30 days of the lender's approval of their application and to cancel the loan within 3 business days of its consummation.

Date: 2013-11-21
Topic: Education (Higher)
Subject: Education