Protecting Student Privacy Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9134 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 9134

  To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ensure that personally 
 identifiable information provided in the Free Application for Federal 
  Student Aid is not used for immigration enforcement, and for other 
                               purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 3, 2026

  Ms. Randall (for herself, Mr. Casar, Ms. Norton, and Mr. Liccardo) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                        Education and Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
  To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ensure that personally 
 identifiable information provided in the Free Application for Federal 
  Student Aid is not used for immigration enforcement, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting Student Privacy Act''.

SEC. 2. PROTECTION OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION.

    Part G of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1088 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
section:

``SEC. 494A. PROHIBITION ON USE OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION 
              FOR IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT PURPOSES.

    ``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law and 
except as provided in subsection (b), no Federal student aid 
information may be--
            ``(1) shared with or used by the Department of Homeland 
        Security, any other Federal agency that has immigration 
        enforcement authority, or a State or local agency that has in 
        effect an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security 
        under section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 
        U.S.C. 1357) for the purposes of immigration enforcement; or
            ``(2) treated as information subject to disclosure under 
        section 642 of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act, 
        1997 (8 U.S.C. 1373).
    ``(b) Exception.--The prohibition under subsection (a) shall not 
apply to Federal student aid information--
            ``(1) required to be disclosed pursuant to a court order 
        issued in connection with the commission of a Federal or State 
        criminal offense alleged to have been committed by the student; 
        or
            ``(2) subject to subsection (c), in a case in which the 
        student or contributor individual has voluntarily and expressly 
        consented to the disclosure of such information to an agency 
        described in subsection (a)(1).
    ``(c) Prohibition on Coercion.--The exception under subsection 
(b)(2) shall not apply in a case in which an agency described in 
subsection (a)(1)--
            ``(1) requested that a student or contributor individual 
        consent to the disclosure of Federal student aid information; 
        or
            ``(2) coerced or otherwise pressured a student or 
        contributor individual to consent to such disclosure.
    ``(d) Reporting to Congress.--In the event the Secretary discloses 
or learns of a disclosure of Federal student aid information in 
violation of this section, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a 
report that describes the circumstances of such disclosure, the nature 
of the information disclosed, and any steps taken to remedy the 
disclosure.
    ``(e) Relationship to Other Law.--This section supercedes any 
contrary provision of Federal, State, or local law to the extent such 
law would authorize disclosure of Federal student aid information in 
violation of this section.
    ``(f) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Contributor individual.--The term `contributor 
        individual' means any individual (including a spouse or parent 
        of a student or borrower) whose financial information, 
        including tax return information, is required to be provided on 
        an application for any program, activity, or benefit under this 
        title.
            ``(2) Federal student aid information.--The term `Federal 
        student aid information' means any personally identifiable 
        information (as that term is used in section 444 of the General 
        Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g; commonly known as 
        the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974)) about a 
        student or other contributor individual that is submitted or 
        used in connection with a determination of initial or 
        continuing eligibility for any program, activity, or benefit 
        under this title.
            ``(3) Immigration enforcement.--The term `immigration 
        enforcement' means an apprehension, an arrest, an interview, a 
        request for identification, a search, or surveillance for the 
        purposes of enforcing the immigration laws.
            ``(4) Immigration laws.--The term `immigration laws' has 
        the meaning given the term in section 101(a)(17) of the 
        Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(17)).''.
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