H.R. 6506 (112th): Understanding the True Cost of College Act of 2012

Introduced:
Sep 21, 2012 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Rep. Joe Courtney [D-CT2]
Status:
Died (Referred to Committee)

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

(About Ads | Go Ad-Free for $5)
Status

This bill was introduced on September 21, 2012, in a previous session of Congress, but was not enacted.

Progress
Introduced Sep 21, 2012
Referred to Committee Sep 21, 2012
Cosponsors
12 cosponsors (12D) (show)
Committees

House Education and the Workforce

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To amend the Higher Education Opportunity Act to add disclosure requirements to the institution financial aid offer form and to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make such form mandatory.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

Read Bill Text »

Last updated Sep 21, 2012.
14 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

GovTrack gets most information from THOMAS, which is updated generally one day after events occur. Activity since the last update may not be reflected here.

Citation

Click a format for a citation suggestion:

GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

9/21/2012--Introduced.
Understanding the True Cost of College Act of 2012 - Amends the Higher Education Opportunity Act to refer to the Secretary of Education's model institution of higher eduction (IHE) financial aid offer form as the standard form.
Requires the standard form to include certain additional items, such as:
(1) information concerning work study assistance, including its dependence on the availability of employment opportunities;
(2) the disclosure that federal student loans offer generally more favorable terms and repayment options than private education loans;
(3) the deadline for and a summary of the financial aid acceptance process;
(4) the academic period covered by the offer and whether the aid is based on full-time or part-time enrollment; and
(5) the IHE's most recent cohort default rate compared to the national average cohort default rate, if more than 30% of the school's students take out student loans.
Requires more detailed information to be included on the form.
Includes among those details, with respect to federal education loans, information:
(1) identifying the type and amount of loan recommended for the applicable student;
(2) clearly indicating that such loans need to be repaid;
(3) disclosing the student's right to borrow less than the recommended amount; and
(4) detailing the interest rates, fees, expected monthly repayment amounts, and sums to be paid over the life of such loans.
Requires that certain steps be taken to improve the clarity of the form and provide recipients with access to additional information.
Directs the Secretary, before finalizing the standard form, to submit it to consumer testing among students, their families, IHEs, secondary school and postsecondary counselors, and nonprofit consumer groups.
Amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require each IHE receiving federal financial assistance under the Act to use the standard form in providing written or electronic financial aid offers to students enrolled in, or accepted for enrollment in, the IHE.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

No summary available.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)