Native American Indian Education Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 759 To help provide relief to State education budgets during a recovering economy, to help fulfill the Federal mandate to provide higher educational opportu- nities for Native American Indians, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 12, 2019 Mr. GARDNER (for himself, Mr. BENNET, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Ms. SMITH, and Mr. HEINRICH) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To help provide relief to State education budgets during a recovering economy, to help fulfill the Federal mandate to provide higher educational opportunities for Native American Indians, and for other purposes. 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 ‘‘Native American In- 4 dian Education Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S759.IS S759 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 759 IS (1) Nontribal colleges that serve Native Amer- 1 ican Indian students have a valuable supplemental 2 role to that provided by tribally controlled commu- 3 nity colleges in making available educational oppor- 4 tunities to Native American Indian students. 5 (2) Some 4-year colleges serve Native American 6 Indian students by providing tuition-free education, 7 with the support of the State in which the institu- 8 tions are located, as mandated by Federal statute, to 9 hundreds of Native American Indian students in ful- 10 fillment of a condition under which the United 11 States provided land and facilities for colleges to a 12 State or college. 13 (3) The value of the Native American Indian 14 student tuition waiver benefits contributed by these 15 colleges and the States that support them today far 16 exceeds the value of the original grant of land and 17 facilities. 18 (4) The ongoing financial burden of meeting 19 this Federal mandate to provide tuition-free edu- 20 cation to Native American Indian students is no 21 longer equitably shared among the States and col- 22 leges because it does not distinguish between Native 23 American Indian students who are residents of the 24 State or of another State. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S759.IS S759 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 759 IS (5) Native American Indian student tuition 1 waiver benefits are now at risk of being terminated 2 by severe budget constraints being experienced by 3 these colleges and the States which support them. 4 (b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to ensure 5 that Federal funding is provided in order to relieve con- 6 strained State education budgets and to support and sus- 7 tain the longstanding Federal mandate requiring colleges 8 and States to waive, in certain circumstances, tuition 9 charges for Native American Indian students admitted to 10 an undergraduate college program, including the waiver 11 of tuition charges for Native American Indian students 12 who are not residents of the State in which the college 13 is located. 14 SEC. 3. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL MANDATE. 15 Part A of title III of the Higher Education Act of 16 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1057 et seq.) is amended by inserting 17 after section 319 the following: 18 ‘‘SEC. 319A. STATE RELIEF FROM FEDERAL HIGHER EDU- 19 CATION MANDATE. 20 ‘‘(a) AMOUNT OF PAYMENT.— 21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraphs (2) 22 and (3), from amounts made available under sub- 23 section (e) for fiscal year 2020 and each succeeding 24 fiscal year, the Secretary shall pay to any eligible 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S759.IS S759 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 759 IS college an amount equal to the charges for tuition 1 for such year for all Native American Indian stu- 2 dents who— 3 ‘‘(A) are not residents of the State in 4 which the college is located; and 5 ‘‘(B) are enrolled in the college for the aca- 6 demic year ending before the beginning of such 7 fiscal year. 8 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE COLLEGES.—For purposes of 9 this section, an eligible college is any institution of 10 higher education serving Native American Indian 11 students that provides tuition-free education as man- 12 dated by Federal statute, with the support of the 13 State in which it is located, to Native American In- 14 dian students in fulfillment of a condition under 15 which the college or State received its original grant 16 of land and facilities from the United States. 17 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—The amount paid to any eli- 18 gible college for each fiscal year under paragraph (1) 19 may not exceed the amount equal to the charges for 20 tuition for all Native American Indian students of 21 that college who were not residents of the State in 22 which the college is located and who were enrolled 23 in the college for academic year 2019–2020. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S759.IS S759 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 759 IS ‘‘(b) TREATMENT OF PAYMENT.—Any amounts re- 1 ceived by an eligible college under this section shall be 2 treated as a reimbursement from the State in which the 3 college is located, and shall be considered as provided in 4 fulfillment of any Federal mandate upon the State to 5 admit Native American Indian students free of charge of 6 tuition. 7 ‘‘(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec- 8 tion shall be construed to relieve any State from any man- 9 date the State may have under Federal law to reimburse 10 a college for each academic year— 11 ‘‘(1) with respect to Native American Indian 12 students enrolled in the college who are not residents 13 of the State in which the college is located, any 14 amount of charges for tuition for such students for 15 such academic year that exceeds the amount re- 16 ceived under this section for such academic year; 17 and 18 ‘‘(2) with respect to Native American Indian 19 students enrolled in the college who are residents of 20 the State in which the college is located, an amount 21 equal to the charges for tuition for such students for 22 such academic year. 23 ‘‘(d) DEFINITION OF NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN 24 STUDENTS.—In this section, the term ‘Native American 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S759.IS S759 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 759 IS Indian students’ includes reference to the term ‘Indian pu- 1 pils’ as that term has been utilized in Federal statutes 2 imposing a mandate upon any college or State to provide 3 tuition-free education to Native American Indian students 4 in fulfillment of a condition under which the college or 5 State received its original grant of land and facilities from 6 the United States. 7 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be 9 appropriated— 10 ‘‘(A) $19,700,000 to carry out subsection 11 (a) for fiscal year 2020; and 12 ‘‘(B) such sums as may be necessary to 13 carry out such subsection for each subsequent 14 fiscal year. 15 ‘‘(2) NO IMPACT ON RELATED FUNDING.—No 16 funds providing postsecondary education for Native 17 American Indian students under any other Federal 18 law shall be reduced to offset any funds provided 19 under paragraph (1).’’. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S759.IS S759 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS