Bill would let state set degree‑authorization fees by administrative rule instead of statute
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Summary
House Bill 3,028 would remove a statutory fee schedule for degree‑authorization reviews and allow the Higher Education Coordinating Commission to adopt fees by rule; the agency said it would not seek immediate fee increases but wants flexibility to respond faster to demand.
The committee heard House Bill 3,028, a measure to repeal the statutory fee schedule that governs review of academic programs and permit the Higher Education Coordinating Commission to set those fees in administrative rule.
Ellen (staff member) opened the item and Kyle Thomas, HEC director of legislative and policy affairs, explained that the Office of Degree Authorization is entirely fee‑funded and that current statute leaves the office with a rigid fee schedule that can take two or more years to change through the legislature. Thomas said HEC would not seek to increase fees immediately if the bill passes and that the agency would initially adopt the identical fee schedule by rule, but the rulemaking authority would let the office respond more quickly to fluctuations in demand — for example, a spike in out‑of‑state or new programs seeking authorization — without creating long queues or delaying institutional reviews.
Thomas also described how most out‑of‑state institutions operate under a state authorization reciprocity agreement, reducing the number of institutions that actually pay the in‑state fee schedule; he said differentiation between in‑state and out‑of‑state fees is not currently built into the statute or rule.
No committee vote on HB 3,028 is recorded in the hearing transcript.