S.Amdt. 552

SA 552. Mr. CARPER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by

[[Page S2682]]

him to the bill S. 2226, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2024 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle G of title X, add the following:

SEC. 1083. ADMINISTRATION OF RISK-BASED SURVEYS TO CERTAIN
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

(a) Development Required.--The Secretary of Defense, acting
through the Voluntary Education Institutional Compliance
Program of the Department of Defense, shall develop a risk-
based survey for oversight of covered educational
institutions.
(b) Scope.--
(1) In general.--The scope of the risk-based survey
developed under subsection (a) shall be determined by the
Secretary.
(2) Specific elements.--At a minimum, the scope determined
under paragraph (1) shall include the following:
(A) Rapid increase or decrease in enrollment.
(B) Rapid increase in tuition and fees.
(C) Complaints tracked and published from students pursuing
programs of education, based on severity or volume of the
complaints.
(D) Student completion rates.
(E) Indicators of financial stability.
(F) Review of the advertising and recruiting practices of
the educational institution, including those by third-party
contractors of the educational institution.
(G) Matters for which the Federal Government or a State
government brings an action in a court of competent
jurisdiction against an educational institution, including
matters in cases in which the Federal Government or the State
comes to a settled agreement on such matters outside of the
court.
(c) Action or Event.--
(1) Suspension.--If, pursuant to a risk-based survey under
this section, the Secretary determines that an educational
institution has experienced an action or event described in
paragraph (2), the Secretary may suspend the participation of
the institution in Department of Defense programs for a
period of two years, or such other period as the Secretary
determines appropriate.
(2) Action or event described.--An action or event
described in this paragraph is any of the following:
(A) The receipt by an educational institution of payments
under the heightened cash monitoring level 2 payment method
pursuant to section 487(c)(1)(B) of the Higher Education Act
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094).
(B) Punitive action taken by the Attorney General, the
Federal Trade Commission, or any other Federal department or
agency for misconduct or misleading marketing practices that
would violate the standards defined by the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs.
(C) Punitive action taken by a State against an educational
institution.
(D) The loss, or risk of loss, by an educational
institution of an accreditation from an accrediting agency or
association, including notice of probation, suspension, an
order to show cause relating to the educational institution's
academic policies and practices or to its financial
stability, or revocation of accreditation.
(E) The placement of an educational institution on
provisional certification status by the Secretary of
Education.
(d) Database.--The Secretary shall establish a searchable
database or use an existing system, as the Secretary
considers appropriate, to serve as a central repository for
information required for or collected during site visits for
the risk-based survey developed under subsection (a), so as
to improve future oversight of educational institutions.
(e) Covered Educational Institution.--In this section, the
term ``covered educational institution'' means an educational
institution selected by the Secretary based on quantitative,
publicly available metrics indicating risk designed to
separate low-risk and high-risk institutions, to focus on
high-risk institutions.
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