Accreditation Choice and Innovation Act
Latest action · Dec 18, 2025 Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 360.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJun 20, 2025
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Accreditation Choice and Innovation Act
This bill revises the accreditation process for reviewing the quality of education offered by institutions of higher education (IHEs).
Under current law, an IHE seeking to participate in many federal programs (e.g., federal student aid programs) must be accredited by an agency recognized by the Department of Education (ED) as a reliable authority on the quality of the education being offered at the IHE. An ED-recognized accrediting agency must meet various provisions under the Higher Education Act of 1965 and in regulations.
Under this bill, states may designate an entity (e.g., an industry-specific quality assurance entity) as an accrediting agency for programs or IHEs in the state. The bill outlines the requirements for the state to submit a plan to ED and for ED to respond to the plan.
Additionally, the bill provides an accelerated path to recognition by authorizing ED to recognize new accrediting agencies within two years of their application.
ED must convene a panel of experts to develop common terminology for accrediting agencies to use in making accrediting decisions and publish those recommendations.
Further, the bill (1) requires accrediting agencies to establish specified standards for measures assessing student success (e.g., labor market outcomes), and (2) requires accrediting agencies to establish procedures for assessing compliance with agency standards that reflect an IHE's risk of losing accreditation.
The bill reauthorizes through September 30, 2028, and revises the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, which advises ED on matters related to accreditation.
Cosponsors 1
Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Jul 2, 2025.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-IN | Mark B. Messmer | Jul 2, 2025 |
Actions 6
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Dec 18, 2025Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 360.
- Dec 18, 2025Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Education and Workforce. H. Rept. 119-414.
- Jun 25, 2025Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
- Jun 25, 2025Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 21 - 15.
- Jun 20, 2025Introduced in House
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Education.
- Academic performance and assessments
- Administrative remedies
- Advisory bodies
- Education
- Government information and archives
- Higher education
- Intergovernmental relations
- Performance measurement
- Religion
- State and local government operations
- Student aid and college costs
- Student records
- Teaching, teachers, curricula
- Wages and earnings
Text 2
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Dec 18, 2025Reported in House
- Jun 20, 2025Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.