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HR 5181 119th Congress House Education Academic performance and assessments Congressional oversight District of Columbia Education programs funding Elementary and secondary education Government information and archives Maryland Preschool education Student aid and college costs Teaching, teachers, curricula Virginia

SOAR Act Improvements Act

Introduced: September 8, 2025 Introduced by: Foxx, Virginia Republican · North Carolina See on congress.gov
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 Everywhere this bill has been 4 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Sep 10, 2025
Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 25 - 20.
Sep 10, 2025
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
Sep 8, 2025
Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Sep 8, 2025
Introduced in House
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 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

SOAR Act Improvements Act

This bill reauthorizes through FY2032 and modifies the District of Columbia (DC) Opportunity Scholarship Program, which is a federal program that funds private school scholarships for low-income students in DC.

Under the program, the Department of Education (ED) issues grants to nonprofit organizations to pay for income-qualified DC residents to attend DC private elementary or secondary schools of their choice. The bill expands the program to include pre-kindergarten students and authorizes ED to renew grants for up to five years without a new application. 

Current law requires nonprofits to ensure that if more scholarship students apply to a particular school than the school can accommodate, students will be randomly selected for admission. The bill specifies that this only applies if random selection would not interfere with the school's regular admission standards or procedures.

Current law also requires schools to be properly accredited in order to participate in the program (i.e., enroll scholarship students). The bill authorizes a nonparticipating school to enroll scholarship students provided it obtains accreditation within five years of first pursuing participation in the program.

The bill also makes other administrative changes to the program, including (1) authorizing the majority of voting members of a nonprofit’s board to live in the DC metropolitan area, rather than in DC itself; (2) removing a cap on the use of funds for tutoring students; and (3) directing ED and the mayor of DC to periodically evaluate and publicly report on the program.

What's happening now September 10, 2025

Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 25 - 20.

 Hearings & markups 1
 Related & companion bills 1
  • S 3710 Related bill SOAR Permanent Authorization Act
 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 1
 Lobbying activity 3

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

 Cosponsors 1
All 1 Republican 1
R
Higgins, Clay
Louisiana · Sep 9, 2025
Cite this page click to expand
APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 5181: SOAR Act Improvements Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5181/
MLA
"H.R. 5181: SOAR Act Improvements Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5181/.
Bluebook (legal)
H.R. 5181, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5181/.
Markdown link
[H.R. 5181: SOAR Act Improvements Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-5181/)
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