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Newsletter > September 2018 > "House Democrats Propose New Legislation"
House Democrats Propose New Legislation
Tim Burke, Manley Burke, tburke@manleyburke.com
Legislation which would reauthorize the Higher Education Act remains pending in Congress. In the January 2018 issue of Fraternal Law, we reported on H.R. 4508 (the Prosper Act).1 Now, House Democrats have proposed a different version of a bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. This one is known as the Aim Higher Act.
As in the Prosper Act, the Aim Higher Act addresses the Clery Act, requiring the disclosure of campus crime statistics. The Aim Higher Act would add hazing and harassment as reportable offenses to the Clery crime reporting obligations. A new subsection would also be added to Clery requiring the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Attorney General and experts in a variety of matters relating to sexual assault, to develop a standardized survey tool which institutions would be required to administer every two years. Furthermore, each institution would be required to publish the survey results on the institution’s website.
As with the Prosper Act, the Aim Higher Act addresses numerous other issues contained in the Higher Education Act, particularly related to educational funding issues. It remains to be seen when Congress will move forward on either measure and the closer we get to November’s mid-term elections, the more probable it becomes that reauthorization of the Higher Education Act is not likely to occur until the new Congress is in place in 2019.