PROPEL Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 221 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 9, 2023 Mr. WITTMAN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 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 (1) AWARD YEAR 2023–2024.—Section 401(a) of 8 the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:29 Jan 19, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H221.IH H221 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 221 IH 1070a(a)) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 1 lowing: 2 ‘‘(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, 3 for purposes of this section, the terms ‘eligible institution’, 4 ‘institution of higher education’, ‘eligible program’, and 5 ‘institution’ include a program of education that— 6 ‘‘(A) consists of vocational or technical training, 7 flight training, or apprenticeship or other on-job 8 training; 9 ‘‘(B) an individual may pursue using edu- 10 cational assistance pursuant to section 3313(g) of 11 title 38, United States Code; 12 ‘‘(C) is less than 600 clock hours of instruction, 13 16 semester hours, or 24 quarter hours, offered dur- 14 ing a period of less than 15 weeks; 15 ‘‘(D) is not required to be accredited by a na- 16 tionally recognized accrediting agency or association 17 recognized by the Secretary pursuant to part H; 18 ‘‘(E) is not required to lead to a recognized 19 educational credential; 20 ‘‘(F) for purposes of the reporting requirements 21 under section 132(i), reports on all enrolled students 22 without regard to whether a student is a first-time, 23 full-time, degree- or certificate-seeking student; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:29 Jan 19, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H221.IH H221 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 221 IH ‘‘(G) except as otherwise provided in subpara- 1 graphs (A) through (F) of this paragraph, meets the 2 requirements of this title for an institution to par- 3 ticipate in the program under this section.’’. 4 (2) AWARD YEAR 2024–2025 AND EACH SUC- 5 CEEDING AWARD YEAR.—Section 401(a) of the 6 Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7 1070a(a)), as amended by the FAFSA Simplifica- 8 tion Act (section 703 of division FF of Public Law 9 116–260), is amended by adding at the end the fol- 10 lowing: 11 ‘‘(3) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, 12 for purposes of this section, the terms ‘eligible institution’, 13 ‘institution of higher education’, ‘eligible program’, and 14 ‘institution’ include a program of education that— 15 ‘‘(A) consists of vocational or technical training, 16 flight training, or apprenticeship or other on-job 17 training; 18 ‘‘(B) an individual may pursue using edu- 19 cational assistance pursuant to section 3313(g) of 20 title 38, United States Code; 21 ‘‘(C) is less than 600 clock hours of instruction, 22 16 semester hours, or 24 quarter hours, offered dur- 23 ing a period of less than 15 weeks; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:29 Jan 19, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H221.IH H221 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 221 IH ‘‘(D) is not required to be accredited by a na- 1 tionally recognized accrediting agency or association 2 recognized by the Secretary pursuant to part H; 3 ‘‘(E) is not required to lead to a recognized 4 educational credential; 5 ‘‘(F) for purposes of the reporting requirements 6 under section 132(i), reports on all enrolled students 7 without regard to whether a student is a first-time, 8 full-time, degree- or certificate-seeking student; and 9 ‘‘(G) except as otherwise provided in subpara- 10 graphs (A) through (F) of this paragraph, meets the 11 requirements of this title for an institution to par- 12 ticipate in the program under this section.’’. 13 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 484(a)(1) 14 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 15 1091(a)(1)) is amended by inserting ‘‘or, for purposes of 16 the Federal Pell Grant program under section 401, a pro- 17 gram of education described in section 401(a)(3) for 18 award year 2023–2024, or section 401(a)(4) for award 19 year 2024–2025 or any succeeding award year’’ after 20 ‘‘section 487’’. 21 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:29 Jan 19, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H221.IH H221 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS