(By a vote of 221 to 199, the House of Representatives today passed the Higher Education Act (HEA), H.R. 609. The bill moves on to the Senate.)

We appreciate the willingness of Chairman Buck McKeon and his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to listen to the concerns of America’s private colleges and universities. The bill passed by the House today is a marked improvement over the one that came out of committee.

While the bill is not perfect, the progress made has opened the way for us to work together with Mr. McKeon and his Democratic counterpart Rep. Miller to seek further improvements in the legislation.

While flaws remain, significant improvements were made to the bill over the past week. The Republican Leadership agreed to support two amendments that (1) addressed our major policy problems with transfer of credit; (2) fully struck the states as accreditors language; and (3) removed the most egregious, but not all, enforcement mechanisms for federal price controls, although aspects of the reporting requirements that are troublesome still remain.

Although we do not endorse the bill, those improvements allowed NAICU to remove its vigorous opposition to the bill on the House floor.

In the past week, independent colleges around the nation voiced a number of concerns about the House bill. Principal among our concerns were provisions we believe establish inappropriate federal control over a private college's responsibility to set its own prices, and those that would allow states to become accreditors.

America's private colleges play an essential role in ensuring the diversity of choice that is the strength of American higher education. We look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats to safeguard the diversity and quality of private higher education, by ensuring appropriate accountability to federal taxpayers without imposing inappropriate federal or state control.