1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Expanding Access to Graduate Education Act of 2019”.
Expanding Access to Graduate Education Act of 2019
A BILL
To expand access to graduate education by amending the Federal Pell Grant program to include postbaccalaureate study.
2. Federal Pell Grants for graduate students
Section 401 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a) is amended—
in subsection (a), by inserting “or as a postbaccalaureate student in accordance with subsection (c)(1),” after “as an undergraduate,”; and
by amending subsection (c)(1) to read as follows:
“(c) Period of eligibility for grants
“(1) The period during which a student may receive Federal Pell Grants shall be the period required for the completion of the first undergraduate baccalaureate course of study being pursued by that student at the institution at which the student is in attendance except that—
“(A) any period during which the student is enrolled in a noncredit or remedial course of study as defined in paragraph (2) shall not be counted for the purpose of this paragraph; and
“(B) the period during which a student may receive Federal Pell Grants shall also include the period required for the completion of the first postbaccalaureate course of study in a case in which—
“(i) the student received a Federal Pell Grant during the period required for the completion of the student’s first undergraduate baccalaureate course of study for at least 1 but fewer than 12 semesters, or the equivalent of at least 1 but fewer than 12 semesters, as determined under paragraph (5);
“(ii) the student would otherwise be eligible for a Federal Pell Grant, but for the completion of such baccalaureate course of study; and
“(iii) the period during which the student receives Federal Pell Grants does not exceed the student’s duration limits under paragraph (5).”