In 1965, Congress enacted the Higher Education Act (HEA),
with the goals of establishing financial aid and strengthening
educational resources in higher education. Since then, Congress
updated the HEA several times, most recently in 2008. Over 10 years
since its last amendment, the HEA is now in need of an update.
Accordingly, Congress's higher education oversight
committees held hearings on the HEA in January, and several
approaches to amending the HEA have been proposed. One such
proposal came from the White House on March 19, 2019 (Proposals to Reform the Higher
Education Act – the "Proposal").
As summarized below, the Proposal argues that Congress should
reform the HEA with a focus on job placement and financial aid.