PROPEL Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 177 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to expand eligibility for participation in the Federal Pell Grant program to certain trade schools. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 4, 2021 Mr. WITTMAN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to expand eligibility for participation in the Federal Pell Grant program to certain trade schools. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Professional Pell Edu- 4 cation Learning Act’’ or the ‘‘PROPEL Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FEDERAL PELL GRANTS. 6 (a) CLARIFICATION OF ELIGIBLE INSTITUTIONS.— 7 Section 401(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 8 U.S.C. 1070a(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 9 following: 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:18 Jan 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H177.IH H177 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 177 IH ‘‘(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, 1 for purposes of this section, the terms ‘eligible institution’, 2 ‘institution of higher education’, ‘eligible program’, and 3 ‘institution’ include a program of education that— 4 ‘‘(A) consists of vocational or technical training, 5 flight training, or apprenticeship or other on-job 6 training; 7 ‘‘(B) an individual may pursue using edu- 8 cational assistance pursuant to section 3313(g) of 9 title 38, United States Code; 10 ‘‘(C) is less than 600 clock hours of instruction, 11 16 semester hours, or 24 quarter hours, offered dur- 12 ing a period of less than 15 weeks; 13 ‘‘(D) is not required to be accredited by a na- 14 tionally recognized accrediting agency or association 15 recognized by the Secretary pursuant to part H; 16 ‘‘(E) is not required to lead to a recognized 17 educational credential; 18 ‘‘(F) for purposes of the reporting requirements 19 under section 132(i), reports on all enrolled students 20 without regard to whether a student is a first-time, 21 full-time, degree- or certificate-seeking student; and 22 ‘‘(G) except as otherwise provided in subpara- 23 graphs (A) through (F) of this paragraph, meets the 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:18 Jan 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H177.IH H177 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 177 IH requirements of this title for an institution to par- 1 ticipate in the program under this section.’’. 2 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 484(a)(1) 3 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 4 1091(a)(1)) is amended by inserting ‘‘or, for purposes of 5 the Federal Pell Grant program under section 401, a pro- 6 gram of education described in section 401(a)(4)’’ after 7 ‘‘section 487’’. 8 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:18 Jan 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H177.IH H177 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS