Dive Temporary:
- Home lawmakers on Friday overwhelmingly handed a invoice that may require the U.S. Division of Training to make the Free Utility for Federal Pupil Assist accessible by Oct. 1 annually. The measure would take impact in 2025 for the 2026-27 FAFSA.
- The invoice, handed by a 381-1 vote, comes after the Training Division’s rocky rollout of the revamped FAFSA over the last monetary help cycle. In 2023, the company launched the shape within the last days of December — practically three months later than it normally turns into accessible. The only lawmaker who voted in opposition to the invoice later mentioned it was by mistake, Newsweek reported.
- Sen. Invoice Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, has introduced companion legislation within the Senate, the place lawmakers solely have a short while to go the measure earlier than a brand new congressional session begins Jan. 3. In the event that they don’t, the invoice must be reintroduced for consideration.
Dive Perception:
Federal legislation at present requires the Training Division to launch the FAFSA on or near Oct. 1 “to the utmost extent practicable,” although the statute provides the company till Jan. 1 annually to make the shape accessible.
The FAFSA Deadline Act would take away this flexibility and require the U.S. schooling secretary to certify to Congress by Sept. 1 that the company will meet the October deadline. If not, the schooling secretary must testify earlier than Congress by Sept. 30 in regards to the failure and the monetary influence of the delay on college students and their households.
Rep. Erin Houchin, a Republican from Indiana who launched the invoice, blasted the Training Division for the tumultuous FAFSA launch final help cycle.
She pointed to a latest report from the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace that discovered practically three-quarters of calls to the Education Department went unanswered from January to Could throughout the kind’s rollout. She additionally famous that the Training Division has delayed the discharge of this yr’s FAFSA.
The Training Division introduced earlier this yr that it might totally launch the shape by Dec. 1, although company officers mentioned on a name Thursday that they now anticipate to make it publicly accessible “within the coming days,” USA Today reported.
“It’s crucial that we don’t enable this to turn into precedent,” Houchin mentioned in help of the invoice Friday. “We would like this program to work.”
Democrats additionally overwhelmingly supported the invoice — even after some initially rejected the measure. That features Rep. Bobby Scott, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Home’s schooling committee.
Scott voted against the proposal in July when the Republican-controlled Home Committee on Training and the Workforce superior the measure to the total Home.
On the time, he argued the proposal would power the Training Division to hurry the discharge of the FAFSA with none further help or funding. In flip, the shape might wind up riddled with the identical technical points that candidates skilled final cycle, he recommended.
However on Friday, Scott voted in help of the measure, noting that the invoice would now take impact in 2025 as an alternative of this yr, because the Oct. 1 deadline has already handed for the present cycle.
The proposal “units a transparent, agency deadline for rolling out FAFSA white nonetheless giving the Division of Training time to make sure the appliance capabilities correctly for all college students,” Scott mentioned simply previous to the vote. “The invoice strikes a steadiness between guaranteeing well timed entry to monetary help and never compromising the standard of the appliance course of.”
Increased schooling teams have additionally thrown their help behind the invoice.
Earlier this week, over three dozen larger schooling organizations urged House leaders to go the measure.
“It is very important be certain that college students and households have ample time to make one of many largest monetary selections of their lives,” Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Training, wrote in a letter on behalf of the teams.
This yr, the Training Division launched the FAFSA on Oct. 1 to a small group of scholars to check the shape. The company introduced Thursday that 14,000 college students have since efficiently submitted their forms, and that it hasn’t discovered any vital bugs throughout the testing interval.
