A bill to require the accreditation of English language training programs, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I support S. 1338, which requires the accreditation of English language training programs for student visa holders, and I am a cosponsor of the House version of the bill. Accreditation of English programs will ensure that foreign students here on temporary visas receive the high-level English language education they deserve and expect. And this legislation will help give the students a positive experience in America as well.

The bill prevents fraud in the student visa program and raises the quality of English language training programs in the United States. It does so by requiring accreditation, which is achieved only after certain learning criteria are met.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a foreign national can get a student visa to study at a U.S. college, high school, or other learning institution such as an established ``language training program approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security after consultation with the Secretary of Education.'' This bill requires that a nonimmigrant foreign student seeking to enter the United States to study at a language training program must enroll in a program that is recognized and accredited by the Secretary of Education. The Senate has passed this legislation by unanimous consent, and I urge my colleagues to support it as well.

Intensive English Programs (``IEPs'') serve to teach English to foreign students. There are 90,000 such students in the United States. The programs range in length from two weeks to one year, but average 12 weeks. There are nearly 1,000 IEP's in the U.S., and students must study a minimum of 18 hours per week to meet their visa requirements.

Currently all IEPs must be officially recognized, but that sometimes means there is just a check to see that the building in which the IEP is supposedly located, actually exists. The result of such lax monitoring is widespread fraud in the IEP community.

Illegitimate IEPs either do not teach English well or serve as scams for individuals who want to come to the United States through fraudulent means. In April 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported, ``The operator of two English language schools was charged Wednesday with running a scheme that allowed foreign nationals, including several Russian prostitutes, to fraudulently obtain student visas to enter and stay in the United States.''

In April 2009, two individuals who ran an English language school for immigrants in Duluth, GA, were indicted for submitting fraudulent documents to the Department of Homeland Security. They did so in order to get student visas for ``dozens, and perhaps hundreds, of `students.' ''

And last March agents in the Miami Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office conducted the ``largest single visa fraud takedown in [the] agency's history,'' when they arrested two women who helped obtain fraudulent student visas for over 200 individuals who were supposedly attending an English school, but who were not actually doing so.

Such fraudulent programs, along with IEPs that do not function well, tarnish the reputation of the entire IEP industry. That's why the American Association of Intensive English Programs supports this legislation. And legitimate IEPs are interested in ensuring the quality of their programs.

Under this bill, IEPs can meet the accreditation requirement in one of two ways. First, they can be under the governance of a university or college that has been accredited by a regional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Or, second, they can be individually accredited by The Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training or the Commission or English Language Program Accreditation.

The three typical steps in the accreditation process are (1) the completion of a written self-study that documents how the program or institution meets the standards of the accreditation agency; (2) a site visit by an agency team to verify that standards are being met; and (3) follow-up measures on the part of the school to correct any deficiencies, subject to review and final approval by the accreditation agency.

Currently, many legitimate IEPs are voluntarily becoming accredited on their own.

I urge my colleagues to support passage of this bill.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings).

Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1338) a bill to require the accreditation of English language training programs, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker and Members, S. 1338 requires that visas for foreign students seeking to attend English schools in the United States only be granted when the student attends a school accredited by an agency recognized by the Secretary of Education. What we found, in short, is that some of these language schools are undermining the laudable mission of this visa program. And it has been determined that many of them are not even attending schools.

So thanks to the diligence of the chairman of the Committee on Financial Services, Barney Frank, we have introduced the bill. The Senate has passed the same bill. Now it is over here for our final approval. But before I reserve the balance of my time, I would thank Lamar Smith, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I am going to yield back, but can I ask my friends on the other side, if you have got another subject matter you want to introduce on a bill, can you wait until we pass the bill and then make your speech about whatever you want?

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Texas for yielding.

This legislation is a good piece of legislation. I urge my colleagues to support it.

But there are other issues that I think need to be addressed today. There has been bipartisan agreement across this country and in Congress that blanket moratoriums on offshore drilling hurts America when it comes to jobs and energy. Yet the Obama administration has suddenly imposed a moratorium that closes the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the entire Atlantic coast.

Madam Speaker, this is the wrong way to respond to the BP oil spill. It hurts our economy and job creation. The answer is not to say America can't figure it out and we should rely on other countries to produce our energy. The right answer is to find out what went wrong and make the effective, timely reforms that ensure that U.S. offshore drilling is the safest in the world.

The Deepwater Horizon spill was a terrible tragedy; but this is a great country, Madam Speaker, and we shouldn't allow this single event to disrupt our long-term need to develop an all-of-the-above energy plan that includes the responsible development of our Nation's offshore oil and gas reserves.

The administration has taken us in the wrong direction. Instead, we need to be working to keep and create energy jobs here in America.

I ask unanimous consent the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration S. 1338 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.