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HR 2374
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American Students First Act

To amend section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to prohibit the provision of Federal financial assistance to public institutions of higher education that provide certain higher education benefits to aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States, and for other purposes.

Introduced Mar 26, 2025

Latest action (Mar 26, 2025) Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Education and Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Referred to
Education and Workforce Committee Judiciary Committee
Policy area
Immigration

Summary

This Act amends federal immigration law to tie Federal financial assistance to public colleges and universities to their policies regarding students who are not lawfully present in the United States. Under the bill, a public institution of higher education would become ineligible for Federal funding if it charges tuition to undocumented students at an in-state rate or provides state-based financial aid to them. Once deemed ineligible in a fiscal year, an institution would lose Federal financial assistance in the following fiscal year. The Secretary of Education would be responsible for determining which institutions meet the ineligibility criteria. Federal financial assistance is defined according to existing law and applies to public institutions as defined in the Higher Education Act.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
3 cosponsors

Actions (2)
  1. Mar 26, 2025 Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Education and Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned. · house
  2. Mar 26, 2025 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HR 2490 — No In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants Act · Introduced Mar 31, 2025 · Cong. 119 83%
  • S 2036 — Putting American Students First Act · Introduced Jun 11, 2025 · Cong. 119 78%
  • HR 3913 — Putting American Students First Act · Introduced Jun 11, 2025 · Cong. 119 76%
  • S 3507 — Put American Students First Act · Introduced Dec 16, 2025 · Cong. 119 75%
  • HR 2367 — College Employment Accountability Act · Introduced Mar 26, 2025 · Cong. 119 75%
  • HR 6865 — American Dream Protection Act of 2025 · Introduced Dec 18, 2025 · Cong. 119 75%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · Mar 26, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 26, 2025

Ms. Mace (for herself, Mr. Harris of Maryland, and Ms. Boebert) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Education and Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To amend section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to prohibit the provision of Federal financial assistance to public institutions of higher education that provide certain higher education benefits to aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States, 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 “American Students First Act”.

SEC. 2. RESTRICTING HIGHER EDUCATION BENEFITS FOR ALIENS NOT LAWFULLY PRESENT.

Section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1623) is amended—

(1) in subsection (b), by striking “This section” and inserting “Subsection (a)”; and

(2) by adding at the end the following:

“(c) Prohibition on Federal Financial Assistance.—

“(1) In general.—A public institution of higher education in a State may not receive any Federal financial assistance for the fiscal year following any fiscal year in which the Secretary of Education determines that the institution is an ineligible institution under paragraph (2).

“(2) Ineligibility.—A public institution of higher education in a State is an ineligible institution for purposes of this subsection if the institution—

“(A) charges an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States tuition for attendance at the institution at a rate that is less than or equal to the rate charged for residents of the State who are citizens of the United States; or

“(B) provides State-based financial aid to an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States.

“(3) Definitions.—In this subsection:

“(A) The term ‘Federal financial assistance’ has the meaning given such term in section 7501(a)(5) of title 31, United States Code.

“(B) The term ‘institution of higher education’ has the meaning given such term in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001).

“(C) The term ‘State’ has the meaning given such term in section 103 of the Higher Education Act of 1964 (20 U.S.C. 1003).”. <all>

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