Reforming Higher Education, One Bill at a Time
Katherine Knott
November 9, 2023
House Republicans want a long-overdue update to the Higher Education Act, but they favor a piecemeal approach, starting with how colleges report foreign gifts and contracts.
The U.S. House’s education committee is moving forward with a piecemeal approach to updating the Higher Education Act of 1965—a massive piece of legislation that governs federal financial aid programs and a range of other policies but hasn’t been reauthorized since 2008.
The process kicked off in earnest Wednesday when the committee considered a bill that would require colleges and universities to report more foreign gifts or risk their access to federal financial aid. The bill, which advanced out of committee on a largely party-line vote, is the first in a series of bills that would, if actually enacted into law, amount to a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
North Carolina representative Virginia Foxx, the Republican chair of the committee, said in an interview that more legislation to reform higher education is coming soon, though she declined to give more information on what the different bills will entail. Based on what the committee’s hearings explored this year, several sources say they expect to see bills focused on accreditation, expanding the Pell Grant to short-term programs, free speech on campus, the student aid system and accountability, among others. Reauthorizing the sweeping law is a priority for Foxx.
