Introduction of the Protect Our Students and Taxpayers (POST) Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Protect Our Students and Taxpayers (POST) Act, a bipartisan bill I introduced earlier today with my colleague Congressman WALTER JONES.

If enacted, it would take steps towards eliminating an incentive for for-profit colleges to aggressively recruit and enroll veterans, service members and their families, who have sacrificed for this country and deserve the highest quality of education.

Current law prohibits for-profit colleges and universities from deriving more than 90 percent of their revenue from the U.S. Department of Education's federal student aid programs. The other 10 percent is required to come from sources other than the federal government. However, because of the way the law was written, veterans' and active duty service members' federal student aid does not count towards the 90 percent. Instead, it may be included among a for-profit institution's calculation of its 10 percent non-federal revenue.

As a result, for-profit colleges and universities are left with a powerful incentive to recruit veterans, service members and their families, offering them degrees that are often less valuable than those from not-for-profit institutions.

The POST Act would strengthen the definition of ``federal aid'' to include G.I. bill funds, Department of Defense Tuition Assistance benefits, and all other federal funding sources.

Furthermore, the POST Act would reinstate a 15 percent minimum on revenue that for-profit colleges must receive from sources other than the federal government. The requirement was lowered from 15 percent to 10 percent in 1998.

The bill also takes steps towards eliminating accounting tricks used by for-profit educational institutions that inflate their declared amount of non-federal funding.

Finally, the POST Act increases the penalty for rule-breakers by causing colleges to lose eligibility to participate in federal student aid programs after one year of noncompliance with the new 85-15 rule. Currently, they do not face penalties until they have been noncompliant for two years.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and help get it passed.

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