Press Releases

Today, Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) delivered the following statement, as prepared for delivery, at a markup of seven bills on education freedom, accreditation, and workers’ benefits:

"Good morning, and welcome to the Committee on Education and Workforce. In today’s markup, we will tackle several bills designed to empower parents with more options for their children, create more accountability in higher education, and make it easier for workers to get and keep the benefits they need.
 
"We’ll start today with H.R. 3453, the Empower Charter School Educators to Lead Act, a critical bill introduced by Rep. Julia Letlow. Charter schools have been enormously successful and they have become a popular choice for many families. In some areas, demand for charter schools outpaces the number of spots available, leaving students to depend on a lottery system to escape underperforming school systems. Unfortunately, the charter school application process can be extraordinarily lengthy, complex, and costly. Rep. Letlow’s bipartisan bill will help remedy this problem by providing the option to repurpose a modest amount of funding to support potential charter school leaders at the pre-planning stage. By offering support to new charter school applicants, we can help increase the number of charter schools to meet the educational demands of families.
 
"Next are two bills that would enact much-needed accreditation reforms to ensure accreditation uses student-oriented outcomes to properly determine which institutions should be eligible for federal student aid.
 
"The first is H.R. 2516, the Accreditation for College Excellence (ACE) Act, introduced by Chairman of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Burgess Owens. The ACE Act stops accreditors from using political viewpoints such as diversity, equity, and inclusion as a quality standard for institutions. Accreditors should be focused on producing workforce-ready graduates, not injecting woke ideology into our institutions.
 
"The second is H.R. 4054, the Accreditation Choice and Innovation Act, introduced by Rep. Randy Fine. This bill requires accreditors to use measurable student-success outcomes, provides an on-ramp for capable new accreditors, and streamlines the accreditation process.
 
"I also want to highlight the protections both bills have for religious institutions, so they can continue to carry out their religious missions free from discrimination by their accreditor.
 
"Additionally, the Committee will be marking up four important pieces of legislation in the workforce space.
 
"H.R. 2528, the Association Health Plans Act, which I introduced, will help small businesses offer quality, affordable health care coverage to their employees by allowing them to band together and have access to the same regulatory and economic benefits as large group plans. Because they have fewer employees, small businesses have limited bargaining power when it comes to negotiating lower insurance costs for their workers. The Association Health Plans Act will expand the availability of high-quality care with cost savings and level the playing field for small businesses.

"We will also consider H.R. 2571, the Self-Insurance Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Bob Onder. This bill reaffirms long-standing policies and practices supporting employers’ right to self-insure and purchase stop-loss insurance to mitigate the financial risk that self-insurance carries. Unfortunately, many states are prohibiting small employers from accessing stop-loss insurance by erroneously classifying stop-loss insurance as health insurance. Stop-loss insurance is not health insurance, which this bill makes clear. By preserving the availability of stop-loss insurance, H.R. 2571 prevents bureaucratic overreach and clarifies once and for all that small businesses have just as much of a right to self-insure as large businesses. 
 
"The next bill is H.R. 2988, the Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings Act, introduced by the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, Rep. Rick Allen. It restores integrity to the management of retirement plan assets by reinforcing the obligation that ERISA imposes on fiduciaries to manage assets with complete and undivided loyalty to the workers’ financial interests—not their own political or social interests. The bill also clarifies that selecting, monitoring, or retaining plan service providers must comply with ERISA’s prudence and loyalty duties—and must be done without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In addition, H.R. 2988 imposes brokerage-window notice requirements on participant-directed, defined-contribution plans. We must protect Americans’ financial futures and promote retirees’ interest in a secure retirement—not play politics with their finances.
 
"Last but not least, we will consider H.R. 3170, the Improving Access to Workers’ Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act, which I introduced with Rep. Joe Courtney. This bill updates federal law to allow injured federal workers to receive treatment for work-related injuries from state-licensed physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Under the current system, many federal workers face long delays in receiving care for their injuries because an approved provider may not be within a reasonable distance. Delay in care means delays in injured workers returning to their jobs. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants are a critical component to filling this provider gap. The bill would increase access to care for federal workers, especially in rural areas, so that they can receive treatment and get back to work faster."

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