Owens Tackles Bureaucratic Roadblocks in Higher Education

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Chairman Burgess Owens (R-UT) introduced the Change of Ownership and Conversion Improvement Act to streamline the review process for changes in ownership at colleges and universities, ensuring that federal red tape doesn’t stand in the way of innovation and opportunity.

“For too long, colleges and universities seeking to merge, convert, or restructure have faced endless delays and bureaucratic stonewalling from the Department of Education – at the expense of American taxpayers,” said Rep. Owens. “Higher education should foster opportunity, innovation, and competition—not serve as a tool for government officials to slow-walk approvals and protect their preferred institutions. The Change of Ownership and Conversion Improvement Act ends this nonsense by enforcing clear deadlines, demanding accountability, and stopping unelected bureaucrats from playing games.”

The Change of Ownership and Conversion Improvement Act: 

• Shifts the burden of processing applications from taxpayers to institutions by requiring the institution to pay an administrative fee when applying. The Department of Education will use these fees to hire staff to reduce the application processing time.
• Creates numerous safeguards to ensure that any application for a conversion is rigorously evaluated. Specifically, it requires all sales to be at or below fair market value and that any transaction involving an insider be approved by an independent committee of directors for the institution.
• Prohibits institutions from advertising as a nonprofit until after the Department has approved the transaction.
• Requires any institution that has recently converted to be subject to a five-year monitoring period and pay a fee to the Department and the IRS to fund monitoring costs.

The full text of the legislation is available here. 

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