William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021

Floor Speech

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Mrs. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I stand with Congressman Takano in support of this amendment to close the 90/10 loophole for the Department of Defense military education benefits.

Educational institutions are required to derive at least 10 percent of their revenues from non-Federal sources. The intent of this requirement is to ensure that schools offer an education that is of high enough value and high enough quality that people would actually want to use their own money to pay for it.

It is about proving market viability, which is supposed to guarantee that taxpayers will not support low-quality schools. If they can't compete in the open market, they should not be supported entirely by the government.

This loophole, which effectively treats Defense Department money as the same as what is supposed to come out of people's pockets, violates the safeguards we intended to have in place. That is why it is called a loophole. And it explains why certain untrustworthy colleges, many of which are for-profit, target servicemembers and veterans.

Closing this loophole is a concrete step to ensuring we protect our servicemembers.

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