12 2 STA T .748PUBLIC LA W 11 0– 227 —M A Y 7 , 2008 ‘ ‘ orpu r chased’ ’a ft er ‘‘ l oa n s m ade’’ each place i t appears in para -g raphs (2) and ( 3 ) .SEC.8 .SE N SE OF CON GR ESS. I tisasenseof C ongress that , at a time w hen our econom y is fragile and higher education and retraining opportunities are more important than e v er — ( 1 ) the F ederal financial institutions, such as the Federal Financing B an k and Federal R eserve, and federally chartered private entities such as the Federal H ome L oan Banks and others, should consider, in consultation with the S ecretary of T reasury and the Secretary of E ducation, using availa b le authorities in a timely manner, if needed, to assist in ensuring that students and families can access Federal student loans for academic year 2 0 0 8– 200 9 , and if needed in the subse q uent academic year, in a manner that results in no increased costs to ta x payers
and (2) any action taken as a result of such consideration should in no way limit or delay the Secretary of Education’s authority to operate the lender-of-last-resort provisions of sec- tion 4 28( j ) of the Higher Education A ctof19 65 (as amended by this Act), nor the authority to purchase Federal Family Education Loan P rogram loans, as authori z ed by section 459A of such Act (as added by this Act). SEC. 9 .G A OS TUDY ON IMP ACT OF INCREASED L OAN LIMITS. (a) S TUDY R EQ U IR ED.—The Comptroller G eneral shall conduct a study to evaluate the impact of the increase in Federal loan limits provided for in section 2 of this Act and section 8005 of the D eficit Reduction Act of 2005 with respect to the impact on— (1) tuition, fees, and room and board at institutions of higher education; and (2) private loan borrowing by students and parents for attendance at institutions of higher education. (b) STUDY C OMP O N ENT S .—The study required under subsection (a) shall be conducted for each major sector of institutions of higher education over a 5-year time period. The report shall specifically analyze the following
(1) W hether, on average, tuition, fees, and room and board increase, decrease, or remain unchanged in each such sector after the increases in Federal loan limits take effect. (2) Whether the amount of private educational loans taken out by students (and their parents) at institutions in each such sector to pay tuition, fees, and room and board increase, decrease, or remain unchanged. (c) REPORT.— N ot later than one year after the date of enact- ment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall provide an interim report to the Committee on Education and Labor of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate including the initial results of the study conducted under this section. The Comptroller General shall follow up with such Committees after the third year and the fifth year after such date of enactment. SEC. 10 . ACADEMIC COMPETITI V ENESS GRANTS. (a) AMENDMENTS.—Section 401A of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U .S.C. 10 7 0a–1) is amended— (1) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following:
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