On Oct. 15, 2019, House Education and Labor Committee Chair Bobby Scott (D-VA) introduced the College Affordability Act
(CAA) (H.R. 4674), which, at over 1,200 pages, represents a
substantial rewriting and expansion of the HEA. The House Education and
Labor Committee voted along party lines Oct. 31 to pass the bill.
The
CAA is a dense, complicated piece of legislation, with a number of
provisions that would be beneficial for students and institutions, such
as significant increases in student aid and support for institutions
that have historically been under resourced. However, these provisions
are offset by intrusive, complicated, or burdensome requirements that
will undercut the bill's primary goal to make higher education more
affordable.
The version of the bill introduced Oct. 15 had a
number of issues ACE and the higher education association community
believed were significant enough to prevent our support. Committee staff
addressed many of these concerns in a revised bill they made public on
Oct. 28, and that bill was further amended in markup before the final
vote.
In the Senate
Meanwhile,
bipartisan comprehensive HEA discussions in the Senate are currently
stalled. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chair of the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has attempted to revive the
process with a bill containing a handful of changes to the HEA, the
Student Aid Improvement Act of 2019. Alexander and Sen. Doug Jones
(D-AL) also have introduced legislation to simplify the process for
applying for federal financial aid. Alexander also has announced his
support for a bipartisan bill that would make changes to the 90/10 rule.