Jul 31, 2014 12:14 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

The U.S. Senate unveiled a new bipartisan bill that would toughen penalties on colleges and universities found responsible of mishandling sexual assault on campus.

According to the Huffington Post, the new penalties would raise the stakes on fines issued to colleges and could result in dozens of schools dolling out millions of dollars for their violations. The Education Department's Office of Civil Rights is currently investigating 71 schools for alleged violations of the Violence Against Women Act, the Clery Act and Title IX.

The new bill can be seen in full here.

Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) all served as co-sponsors to the bill and appeared at a news conference Wednesday to introduce it. Various sexual assault advocates were also at the news conference.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) is also reportedly planning to propose a related piece of legislation in the House. The Obama Administration created a task force in Jan. to make recommendations to curb campus sexual assault, some of which were used in the new bill. The White House made campus sexual assault a priority when the President reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act.

"We have lived through an era when the victim and survivor was blamed. Those decades and days are done," Blumenthal said at the news conference. "There is no reason to demean, dismiss, excuse or deny this problem. We are proposing today, in effect, an enforceable Bill of Rights, guarantees to confidential advisers, access to the criminal process, an internal process of discipline that is fair, impartial and professional, with process due to all."

The HP reported Wednesday, before the bill's release, that higher education leaders are not pleased with another piece of legislation they must adhere to. With limited judicial power, administrators said it is hard to live up to the three laws already in place.

The new bill would increase the maximum penalty amount for a Clery Act violation, raising it from $35,000 to $150,000 per. Colleges will also be fined up to one percent of their operating budget if they fall short of the bill's requirements.

"It's really clear from this bill that the senators listened to the survivors that they talked to," Alexandra Brodsky, a student at Yale Law School and co-founding director of Know Your IX, an advocacy group for sexual assault survivors, told the HP. "It really shows this law is meant to respond to the on-ground experiences of students."

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