Protecting Academic Freedom in Higher Education Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Chair, I rise to oppose H.R. 2117, which would repeal important consumer and taxpayer protections without providing an alternate solution to safeguard students.

Under the Higher Education Act, the federal government, states, and accrediting agencies share responsibility to ensure that students receive a high quality education. As the federal government invests billions in federal student assistance, this ``triad'' must also work together to protect taxpayers from fraud and abuse. The Department of Education issued regulations intended to clarify the state's responsibility to authorize institutions and ensure that they have a system in place to address student complaints.

The regulations also create a uniform definition of a credit hour, which is used on the federal level to allocate student aid dollars. The Department's Inspector General has advised that the failure to define the credit hour has hampered the Department's ability to address waste and fraud in the student aid program.

Finally, the regulations clarify existing requirements that institutions offering distance learning programs be authorized according to the laws of every state in which they operate. I appreciate the concerns of many schools that authorizing in multiple states could be costly and duplicative. For this reason, I strongly support efforts on the State level to establish reciprocity agreements to ease this burden while still ensuring that students receive a quality education.

However, in repealing the regulations entirely, this bill ignores the advice of the Inspector General and leaves billions of dollars of student aid vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse. It also eliminates basic consumer protections for students.

We have a responsibility to ensure that students receive a high quality education and taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. By repealing the Department's efforts but offering no alternate plan, this bill abdicates that responsibility. I urge my colleagues to vote against it.

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