House Panel To Consider Bill To Limit Education Dept.'s Rule-Making Authority

"A bill that would bar the U.S. Department of Education from developing a new 'gainful employment' rule and other higher-education regulations, and that would eliminate a host of existing consumer-protection regulations, is slated for a vote on Wednesday before a key committee of the House of Representatives," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "The measure is unlikely to pass in the Democrat-controlled Senate but is notable for the boldness with which it seeks to limit the agency's authority—so much so that one higher-education leader privately called it an "affront" to the department. The bill is backed by several major associations representing colleges and accreditors, including the American Council on Education, the Association of American Universities, and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. The groups are unhappy with federal rules they call 'complex, confusing, and burdensome.' Yet three major associations representing public colleges—the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities—have declined to join in endorsing the bill. And a coalition of student, consumer, veteran, and civil-rights organizations strongly oppose the bill, arguing that it would force the department to 'turn a blind eye' to practices that have led to the abuse of billions of dollars in federal student-aid funds. At issue is the Supporting Academic Freedom Through Regulatory Relief Act (HR 2637), a bill introduced this month by Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina and Rep. John P. Kline Jr. of Minnesota, both Republicans, and Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, a Florida Democrat. Mr. Kline is chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Ms. Foxx is chair of its subcommittee on higher education. ... The bill takes aim at three controversial rules: the gainful-employment regulation, the state-authorization rule, and the regulations that define credit hours in connection with the awarding of federal student aid. In 2012 the House approved a bill to block the credit-hour and state-authorization rules, and in 2011 the House voted to constrain the department from developing a gainful-employment rule. Neither of those bills passed the Senate. The new bill would go even further than those prior ones by barring the department from issuing any new regulations related to these matters until after Congress next reauthorizes the Higher Education Act."