	Introduction

The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA; P.L. On Wednesday, June 22, 2016, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce marked up and ordered reported the following five bills that would amend selected HEA programs and activities: 
H.R. 3179 , the Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act; H.R. 5529 , the Accessing Higher Education Opportunities Act; and H.R. 5530 , the HBCU Capital Financing Improvement Act. This report identifies and describes how the proposals made in these five bills would amend the programs and activities authorized under the HEA. Each bill is described separately. 5528, the Simplifying the Application for Student Aid Act

Under federal student aid need analysis procedures, a student's calculated ability to pay for higher education is known as the "expected family contribution" (EFC). Information to calculate the EFC is collected via the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). If applicable, family members who have submitted their income tax returns for the applicable tax year prior to completing the FAFSA may be able to import tax information to the FAFSA using the Internal Revenue Service Data Retrieval Tool (IRS-DRT). 5528 directs ED to "make the electronic version of the forms ... available through a technology tool that can be used on mobile devices." 3178, the Strengthening Transparency in Higher Education Act

The HEA was amended by the HEOA to establish a number of provisions that require the reporting and publication of detailed information about institutions of higher education and their offerings, the students who attend them, and college costs and prices. College Dashboard

The HEA currently requires the Department of Education to make certain types of consumer information about IHEs that participate in the Title IV federal student aid programs publicly available on the College Navigator website. 3179 would make numerous amendments to the current loan counseling requirements, with the intent of enhancing the timing, frequency, and content of the counseling to enable borrowers to make sound borrowing decisions. Information to Pell Grant Recipients

H.R. 5529 would expand the authorized uses of Title V-A HSI grants to include (1) the operation of student support services designed to enable the successful advancement of students from four-year institutions of higher education to postbaccalaureate doctoral degree programs for healthcare occupations, and (2) the development and expansion of access to dual or concurrent enrollment programs and early college high school programs. H.R. 5530 would make several changes to the program's operations, support, and congressional oversight.
On Wednesday, June 22, 2016, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce marked up and ordered reported five bills that would amend several of the programs and activities authorized under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA).
H.R. 5528, the Simplifying the Application for Student Aid Act, would amend procedures for completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to mandate the use of income and tax information from the second preceding (prior-prior) year for purposes of calculating a student's expected family contribution (EFC), to require development of a tool that facilitates completion of the FAFSA using a mobile device, and to promote enhancements in the capacity of the Internal Revenue Service Data Retrieval Tool (IRS-DRT) to be used to populate portions of the FAFSA. H.R. 3178, the Strengthening Transparency in Higher Education Act, would revise the types of consumer information about institutions of higher education that must be disclosed through a new Department of Education College Dashboard, which would succeed the current College Navigator website and revise the types of information on college costs and prices that must be made available through net-price calculators. H.R. 3179, the Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act, would establish annual requirements for the counseling of federal student loan and Pell Grant recipients, with the aim of enhancing the timing, frequency, and content of the counseling to better enable borrowers to make sound decisions concerning their federal student aid. H.R. 5529, the Accessing Higher Education Opportunities Act, would amend the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions program to allow the use of funds for offering student support services to enable the advancement of students from baccalaureate programs to postbaccalaureate degree programs for healthcare occupations. H.R. 5530, the HBCU Capital Financing Improvement Act, would make several changes to the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Capital Financing Program to enhance program operations, support, and congressional oversight.
This report identifies and describes how the proposals made in these five bills would amend the affected programs and activities authorized under the HEA. Each bill is described separately. This report will be updated to reflect legislative developments.