YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyCivil LibertiesCriminal Justice & Due ProcessTransparency & AccountabilityTruman scholars would pay back the award with 6% interest if they do not work in public service; the board would be replaced.
Your Money
A scholar would have to work in public service for three of their first seven years after the graduate degree. If they did not, they would repay the whole award with 6 percent interest a year.
A scholar would have four years after their bachelor's degree to start using the money. The Foundation could grant more time, but only in writing.
Civil Liberties
The Foundation would have to say why it plans to stop paying and hold a hearing first. Scholars would also be told all the conditions before the first payment.
The bar would apply to anyone who led a student group when it was suspended or expelled by the school. It would apply even if that leader had no part in what happened.
A student suspended or expelled for breaking a school's conduct rules could not be picked. A current scholar in that spot would lose the rest of the payments.
Criminal Justice & Due Process
A felony conviction in any federal, state, or local court would rule a student out. It would also end payments for someone who already holds the scholarship.
Transparency & Accountability
Press releases, program notices, and scholar biographies would have to sit on a public website. They could not be taken down, hidden, or put behind a password.
Any change to a posted item would have to be marked clearly. The unchanged original would have to stay up, and the rule would cover things posted in the past.
No more than half of the President's eight board picks could come from one party. Review panels would face the same limit, and the bill defines party ties broadly.
No board member could serve more than two six-year terms. The first new members would get two-, four-, and six-year terms so the seats do not all turn over at once.
The current board would be dissolved and every member's term would end. The sitting executive secretary would also step aside once the new board hires a replacement.
More about this bill
Students who win a Truman Scholarship would face new conditions on the money. The award would come with a public-service promise. You would have to work in public service for three of your first seven years after your graduate degree. If you did not, you would owe the whole award back, plus 6 percent interest a year. You would also have to start using the award within four years of finishing your bachelor's degree. The Foundation could grant more time in writing. Payments could be cut off for a felony conviction, a school suspension or expulsion, or a missing or false report. Leading a student group that gets suspended or expelled would block you as well. The Foundation would have to give you notice and a hearing first. The bill would also write the entry rules into law. Review panels could not hold an applicant's choice of graduate degree against them. Most people would see no change at all. The program's leadership would be cleared out. Ninety days after the bill became law, every member of the Foundation's board would be removed. A new 13-member board would take over. Congressional leaders would each pick one member. The President would pick eight more, with Senate approval. No more than four of those eight could share one political party. The Secretary of Education would hold a seat but could not chair. Members would serve six-year terms, with a two-term limit. A new executive secretary would need a two-thirds vote of the board. The Foundation would also have to post its press releases, program notices, and scholar biographies on a public website. It could not delete, hide, or lock those pages. Any later edit would have to be marked. The unchanged original would have to stay online. That rule would cover material already published. Scholarships awarded before the law took effect would keep their current terms.
Congressional Summary
Truman Scholarship Clean House ActThis bill makes changes to the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, which awards scholarships to students who plan to attend graduate school in pursuit of a career in public service.Specifically, the bill dissolves the current Board of Trustees (which oversees the foundation) and terminates all members of the board effective 90 days after the bill's enactment. New board members must be appointed as outlined by the bill.Additionally, the bill (1) prohibits any board member (other than the Secretary of Education or the Secretary's designee) from serving more than two six-year terms, and (2) establishes a quorum as seven board members.The board must appoint a new executive secretary of the foundation, who must (1) be appointed by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the board, and (2) serve a four-year term (but may be reappointed).The bill establishes certain requirements for regional review panels, including that each panel must consist of at least five members appointed annually by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the board and no more than half of the panel may be affiliated with the same political party.The bill establishes additional scholarship conditions, including by (1) stopping payments to scholarship recipients who commit certain actions (e.g., served as a leader in a student organization suspended for misconduct), and (2) requiring recipients who have their scholarship payments stopped or who are not employed in public service for a certain time period to repay their scholarship with 6% interest.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Reported to House
- Action Date
- 2026-07-02
- Date Added
- 2026-07-16
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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