20 U.S.C. § 1161m — Incentives and rewards for low tuition

(a) Rewards for low tuition. (1) From subsection (e) funds, the Secretary must award grants for academic year 2009–2010 and later to institutions that (A) have a most-recent-year annual tuition-and-fee percentage increase in the lowest 20 percent for each subsection (b) category; (B) are public institutions whose tuition and fees are in the lowest quartile for each category in subsection (b)(1), (4), or (7); or (C) are public institutions whose increase is under $600 for a first-time, full-time undergraduate. (2) The institution must distribute the money as need-based grants to students eligible for Federal Pell Grants. No student may receive an amount that makes total aid exceed the institution’s cost of attendance. (b) Categories. The categories are: (1) public four-year institutions; (2) private nonprofit four-year institutions; (3) private for-profit four-year institutions; (4) public two-year institutions; (5) private nonprofit two-year institutions; (6) private for-profit two-year institutions; (7) public institutions offering less than two years; (8) private nonprofit institutions offering less than two years; and (9) private for-profit institutions offering less than two years. (c) Rewards for guaranteed tuition. (1) For each institution the Secretary finds meets paragraph (2) or (3), the Secretary must provide a bonus. The institution must first give the bonus as need-based aid to Pell-eligible students who attended during the award year in which it met the low-tuition criteria, and then to Pell-eligible students who did not attend that year. (2) A bachelor’s-degree institution qualifies if (A) a public institution’s tuition and fees are in the lowest quartile of its subsection (b) category, or (B) any institution guarantees that, for an academic year beginning on or after July 1, 2009, and each of the next four continuous academic years, undergraduate tuition and fees will not exceed (i) $600 per year for a full-time public-institution undergraduate, or (ii) for another institution, (I) the amount charged when the student first enrolled, plus (II) the percentage change in the institution’s tuition and fees during the three most recent years with available data, multiplied by the amount in (I). (3) An institution without a bachelor’s-degree program qualifies if (A) a public institution’s tuition is in the lowest quartile of its category, or (B) any institution guarantees the same limits beginning on or after July 1, 2009, and for the next 1.5 continuous academic years. The $600 and percentage-change formulas are the same as in paragraph (2)(B). (d) Definitions. “Tuition and fees” and “net price” have the meanings given in section 1015a of this title; this section does not define them. (e) Authorization. Congress may appropriate whatever sums are necessary for fiscal year 2009 and each of the next five fiscal years.