Foreign Medical School Accountability Fairness Act of 2019

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 3058 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish fair and consistent eligibility requirements for graduate medical schools operating outside the United States and Canada. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES DECEMBER 16, 2019 Mr. DURBIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish fair and consistent eligibility requirements for graduate medical schools operating outside the United States and Canada. 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 ‘‘Foreign Medical School 4 Accountability Fairness Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 6 To establish consistent eligibility requirements for 7 graduate medical schools operating outside of the United 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:05 Dec 19, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3058.IS S3058 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3058 IS States and Canada in order to increase accountability and 1 protect American students and taxpayer dollars. 2 SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 3 Congress finds the following: 4 (1) Three for-profit schools in the Caribbean 5 have historically received nearly 3⁄4 of all Federal 6 funding under title IV of the Higher Education Act 7 of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.) that goes to stu- 8 dents enrolled at foreign graduate medical schools, 9 despite those three schools being exempt from meet- 10 ing the same eligibility requirements as the majority 11 of graduate medical schools located outside of the 12 United States and Canada. 13 (2) The National Committee on Foreign Med- 14 ical Education and Accreditation and the Depart- 15 ment of Education recommend that all foreign grad- 16 uate medical schools should be required to meet the 17 same eligibility requirements to participate in Fed- 18 eral funding under title IV of the Higher Education 19 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.). 20 (3) The attrition rate at United States medical 21 schools averaged 3.3 percent between 1993 and 22 2013, while rates at for-profit Caribbean medical 23 schools have been known to reach 30 percent. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:05 Dec 19, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3058.IS S3058 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3058 IS (4) In 2019, residency match rates for foreign 1 trained graduates averaged 59 percent compared to 2 94 percent for graduates of allopathic medical 3 schools in the United States. 4 (5) On average, students at for-profit medical 5 schools operating outside of the United States and 6 Canada amass more student debt than those at med- 7 ical schools in the United States. 8 SEC. 4. REPEAL GRANDFATHER PROVISIONS. 9 Section 102(a)(2) of the Higher Education Act of 10 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002(a)(2)) is amended— 11 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking clause (i) 12 and inserting the following: 13 ‘‘(i) in the case of a graduate medical 14 school located outside the United States— 15 ‘‘(I) at least 60 percent of those 16 enrolled in, and at least 60 percent of 17 the graduates of, the graduate med- 18 ical school outside the United States 19 were not persons described in section 20 484(a)(5) in the year preceding the 21 year for which a student is seeking a 22 loan under part D of title IV; and 23 ‘‘(II) at least 75 percent of the 24 individuals who were students or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:05 Dec 19, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3058.IS S3058 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 3058 IS graduates of the graduate medical 1 school outside the United States or 2 Canada (both nationals of the United 3 States and others) taking the exami- 4 nations administered by the Edu- 5 cational Commission for Foreign Med- 6 ical Graduates received a passing 7 score in the year preceding the year 8 for which a student is seeking a loan 9 under part D of title IV;’’; and 10 (2) in subparagraph (B)(iii), by adding at the 11 end the following: 12 ‘‘(V) EXPIRATION OF AUTHOR- 13 ITY.—The authority of a graduate 14 medical school described in subclause 15 (I) to qualify for participation in the 16 loan programs under part D of title 17 IV pursuant to this clause shall expire 18 beginning on the first July 1 following 19 the date of enactment of the Foreign 20 Medical School Accountability Fair- 21 ness Act of 2019.’’. 22 SEC. 5. LOSS OF ELIGIBILITY. 23 If a graduate medical school loses eligibility to par- 24 ticipate in the loan programs under part D of title IV of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:05 Dec 19, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3058.IS S3058 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 3058 IS the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087a et 1 seq.) due to the enactment of the amendments made by 2 section 4, then a student enrolled at such graduate med- 3 ical school on or before the date of enactment of this Act 4 may, notwithstanding such loss of eligibility, continue to 5 be eligible to receive a loan under such part D while at- 6 tending such graduate medical school in which the student 7 was enrolled upon the date of enactment of this Act, sub- 8 ject to the student continuing to meet all applicable re- 9 quirements for satisfactory academic progress, until the 10 earliest of— 11 (1) withdrawal by the student from the grad- 12 uate medical school; 13 (2) completion of the program of study by the 14 student at the graduate medical school; or 15 (3) the fourth June 30 after such loss of eligi- 16 bility. 17 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:05 Dec 19, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3058.IS S3058 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS