Republican Sen. Donna Lowenthal of Mississippi introduced legislation Saturday seeking to repeal a federal rule that ties proprietary colleges’ access to student aid to a basic test of whether they can draw at least 10 percent of their revenue from sources outside federal education assistance.

The proposal, called the 90/10 Rule Repeal Act, would eliminate the statutory requirement, nullify regulations implementing it and prohibit the Department of Education from establishing a similar revenue test in the future.

The 90/10 rule requires proprietary institutions of higher education to secure at least 10 percent of their revenue from non-federal education-assistance sources to remain eligible for federal student aid programs. Lowenthal’s bill would remove that condition entirely for the proprietary-college sector.

Lowenthal argued that colleges should be judged by student outcomes rather than what she characterized as an arbitrary revenue formula. She said the existing rule imposes a regulatory burden, discourages innovation and treats proprietary institutions differently from other parts of higher education.

But the legislation’s central effect is more direct: it would end a federal eligibility standard designed to ensure proprietary colleges are not funded almost entirely through federal education assistance. It would also limit the ability of future administrations to restore a comparable safeguard through regulation.

That distinction is likely to sharpen scrutiny of the proposal. Lowenthal’s press release emphasizes educational choice and reduced regulation, while the measure itself would remove an existing condition attached to participation in federal student aid programs. The bill does not, in its stated provisions, replace the 90/10 requirement with another revenue-based standard.

The measure arrives as education policy continues to raise larger questions about how federal aid should be administered and what accountability standards should apply to institutions receiving it. For students and families relying on federal assistance, the debate reaches beyond regulatory terminology to the rules governing which schools may participate in those programs.

Lowenthal described the bill as part of a broader effort to reduce federal regulatory burdens in higher education and expand educational opportunities. Her proposal would advance that deregulatory approach by eliminating the 90/10 rule and foreclosing similar requirements from future administrations.

For now, the development is the introduction of legislation, not a change in federal policy. The 90/10 requirement remains the governing standard unless Congress acts to repeal it.