The day after the United States House of Representatives narrowly passed the Senate reconciliation bill on health care reform, Republican Governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty sent a letter to Attorney General Lori Swanson requesting her to "review the legal issues being raised by this unprecedented federal mandate and join other attorneys general to protect the constitutional rights of our citizens." That same day, Swanson, through her spokesman, seemed to rebuke the governor's inquiry noting that neither the House bill had been signed nor had the reconciliation proposal been passed by the United States Senate. Furthermore, she argued, her office was not willing "to make any legal comments until we have had the opportunity to review the 2,400-page bill."

On March 11, 2013, Swanson, together with 12 other state attorneys general, sent a letter to Congress in support of the Protecting Financial Aid for Students and Taxpayers Act, a bill that sought to ban for-profit colleges from using federal funds for marketing and recruiting techniques. Senators Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who chaired the chamber's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, sponsored the bill. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) stated that the proposed law aimed to “ensure that scarce federal education dollars will be used to serve and educate students rather than to finance advertising campaigns, recruitment operations, and aggressive marketing.” In the letter, the attorneys general wrote, “Federal taxpayers should not be asked to foot the bill for aggressive recruiting and deceptive sales tactics of colleges that have placed profits ahead of ensuring student success.” At the time, there were an estimated 3,000 for-profit schools nationwide, though neither the letter nor the bill cited the name of any specific institutions. On March 12, 2013, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, but no subsequent action was taken and the bill died in committee. On April 23, 2013, a related bill—HR 340—was referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce's subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, but it also died in committee.