Skip to content
Congress Index

119th Congress

Menu

119th Congress

S. 57 · 118th Congress (2023–2025)

Student Empowerment Act

This bill allows tax-exempt distributions from qualified tuition programs (known as 529 plans) to be used for additional educational expenses in connection with enrollment or attendance at an elementary or secondary school.

(Under current law, distributions in connection with an elementary or secondary school are limited to tuition for a public, private, or religious school.) The bill allows the distributions to be used for additional educational expenses, including

  • curriculum and curricular materials,
  • books or other instructional materials,
  • online educational materials,
  • tutoring or educational classes outside the home,
  • testing fees,
  • fees for dual enrollment in an institution of higher education, and
  • educational therapies for students with disabilities.

Distributions may also be used for tuition and the purposes above in connection with a homeschool (whether treated as a homeschool or a private school under state law).

Show official title

A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit kindergarten through grade 12 educational expenses to be paid from a 529 account.

Expired in Senate committee

Derived from the legislative history, not an official disposition.

Latest actionReferred to committee

This bill’s path

This is S. 57’s recorded path, not a universal congressional workflow.

How bills become lawAll actions

  1. Introduced

  2. Passed Senate

  3. Passed House

  4. Sent to President

  5. Signed into law

  6. Expired

Sponsor
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Cosponsors
7 cosponsors

5 original · 2 later

7 R

  1. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI)· Original · Jan 24, 2023
  2. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK)· Original · Jan 24, 2023
  3. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)· Original · Jan 24, 2023
  4. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)· Original · Jan 24, 2023
  5. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL)· Original · Jan 24, 2023
  6. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)· Later · Feb 9, 2023
  7. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO)· Later · Feb 13, 2023
Policy area
Taxation
Subjects
  • Academic performance and assessments
  • Bank accounts, deposits, capital
  • Elementary and secondary education
  • Higher education
  • Income tax exclusion
  • Special education
  • Student aid and college costs
  • Teaching, teachers, curricula

On this page

Timeline

i

In chronological order. Major procedural acts are shown in full. Committee work and ordinary amendments fold in place where they happened, so they do not jump the sequence or stretch the timeline.

  1. Introduced in Senate

    Document: Introduced in Senate

    Sources
  2. Latest

    Referred to committee

    Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

    Sources

  3. Expired

    Introduced → Referred to Senate Finance → No further action before the 118th Congress ended.

Committees

  1. SenateFinanceReferred Jan 24, 2023

Text & titles

i

Each distinct name Congress.gov recorded, once. Official, short, display, and popular titles stay distinct when the wording differs. The same wording is not repeated for every text version.

Text versions
VersionDateLinks
Introduced in Senate
Titles (2)

  1. Student Empowerment Act

    Display title, Short title · Introduced in Senate

  2. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit kindergarten through grade 12 educational expenses to be paid from a 529 account.

    Official title · Introduced in Senate