House Passes Rep. Levin’s Amendment on Short-Term Pell Grants
CECU
February 4, 2022
This morning, the House passed the America COMPETES Act of 2022. Before the final vote on the full bill, the House passed Rep. Levin’s amendment. Reps. Andy Levin (D-MI), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), and Bryan Steil’s (R-WI) amendment would expand Pell Grant eligibility to short-term programs at private nonprofit and public institutions but would exclude all for-profit institutions. The amendment also includes the text of the College Transparency Act, which has significant bipartisan support.
The Levin Amendment passed by a vote of 238 to 193. The vote tally can be accessed here.
Representatives that Spoke Against the Levin Amendment
During the debate, the Ranking Member of the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), spoke in vehement opposition to the amendment. She said that the amendment is a trojan horse that purports to be designed to enhance transparency and accountability but would actually violate student privacy rights. In addition, she said the amendment would pick winners and losers in higher education and would discriminate against for-profit institutions because of their tax status. Dr. Foxx also criticized the amendment because it is outside of the committee process and is being offered on an unrelated bill.