Dive Temporary:
- Home lawmakers on Friday overwhelmingly handed a invoice that might require the U.S. Division of Training to make the Free Software for Federal Scholar Support obtainable 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 support cycle. In 2023, the company launched the shape within the ultimate days of December — practically three months later than it often turns into obtainable. 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 launched companion laws 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 the moment 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 obtainable.
The FAFSA Deadline Act would take away this flexibility and require the U.S. training secretary to certify to Congress by Sept. 1 that the company will meet the October deadline. If not, the training secretary should testify earlier than Congress by Sept. 30 in regards to the failure and the monetary affect 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 support cycle.
She pointed to a latest report from the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace that discovered practically three-quarters of calls to the Training Division went unanswered from January to Could in the course of the type’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 absolutely launch the shape by Dec. 1, although company officers mentioned on a name Thursday that they now count on to make it publicly obtainable “within the coming days,” USA At the moment reported.
“It’s crucial that we don’t enable this to turn into precedent,” Houchin mentioned in help of the invoice Friday. “We wish 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 training committee.
Scott voted in opposition to 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 extra 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 a substitute 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 making certain well timed entry to monetary support and never compromising the standard of the appliance course of.”
Greater training teams have additionally thrown their help behind the invoice.
Earlier this week, over three dozen increased training organizations urged Home leaders to go the measure.
“It is very important be sure 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 kinds, and that it hasn’t discovered any important bugs in the course of the testing interval.
