U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-MN) issued the following statement as a series of higher education regulations proposed by the Department of Education took effect today:
“The Department of Education has put in place a series of short-sighted and reckless regulations that will be detrimental to the nation’s institutions of higher learning. These regulations are just another example of federal intrusion into areas best left to states and education leaders. At a time when individuals should be encouraged to pursue higher education, the department has created new regulations that will deny access to important education programs and weaken the nation’s workforce. On behalf of students and workers, the fight to roll back these harmful regulations will continue. The Education and the Workforce Committee has already approved bipartisan legislation to repeal various pieces of the department’s regulations, and we will continue to promote bipartisan initiatives to preserve academic freedom in higher education."
On June 15, the Committee on Education and the Workforce approved the Protecting Academic Freedom in Higher Education Act (H.R. 2117). The legislation, which repeals new regulations concerning state authorization and the definition of a credit hour, was approved by the committee with strong bipartisan support. More information on H.R. 2117 can be found here. The Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, under the leadership of Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, held a hearing on March 11 to hear directly from expert witnesses about these regulations. Witness testimony and an archived webcast of the hearing can be found here.
