U.S. Sen. Donna Lowenthal, R-Mississippi, has introduced legislation targeting a federal higher-education rule that her office argues places a distinct regulatory burden on proprietary colleges.

The 90/10 Rule Repeal Act would repeal the federal 90/10 rule, which requires proprietary institutions of higher education to receive at least 10 percent of their revenue from sources other than federal education assistance in order to remain eligible for federal student-aid programs.

Lowenthal’s proposal would also nullify regulations implementing the requirement and bar the Department of Education from establishing a similar revenue-based test through regulation in the future.

The measure puts a familiar Republican argument over federal overreach at the center of the education debate: whether Washington should rely on a rigid funding formula to determine institutional eligibility, or place greater emphasis on what schools deliver for students.

Lowenthal said colleges should be judged by student outcomes and compliance with the law rather than by what she characterized as an arbitrary revenue formula. Her office argued that the current rule restricts educational choice, discourages innovation, and treats the proprietary sector differently from other parts of higher education.

The senator’s approach would remove the statutory requirement rather than revise its percentage threshold or alter its compliance structure. That is a direct challenge to a federal policy that makes student-aid eligibility dependent on a proprietary college’s ability to meet the 90/10 revenue standard.

For supporters of regulatory restraint, the proposal reflects a broader concern that federal agencies can shape major sectors of the economy and education system through compliance formulas that may not directly measure educational quality. Lowenthal’s bill contends that a revenue test is not the proper basis for determining whether an institution should be permitted to participate in federal student-aid programs.

The legislation does not change the fact that institutions would remain subject to applicable law. But it would remove the specific 90/10 requirement and prevent a future administration from recreating a substantially similar condition through Department of Education regulations.

Lowenthal’s office described the bill as part of her ongoing effort to reduce federal regulatory burdens in higher education while expanding opportunities for students across the country.

The introduction marks an early legislative push by the Mississippi Republican to put educational choice and federal restraint at the forefront of the debate over proprietary colleges. The bill’s central question is straightforward: whether the federal government should continue using a revenue formula aimed at one sector of higher education, or allow institutions to be evaluated through other measures tied more directly to student outcomes and legal compliance.