WASHINGTON – The following may be attributed to the Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) with regards to the Biden-Harris administration’s delay for the second straight year in launching the 2024 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form by October 1: “Ensuring a working, timely, and accurate FAFSA should have been the Biden-Harris administration’s priority from day one. Instead, it has continually shown that illegal debt transfer schemes are far more important than ensuring low-income students can afford college. We’ve seen this movie before, and spoiler alert, it was a disaster: students and institutions are still reeling from the Biden-Harris administration’s missed deadlines and broken promises during last year’s ‘launch.’ Needing yet another delay to ‘fix’ issues for the second consecutive year reveals yet another layer of the Department’s mismanagement of FASFA these past four years. Clear communication has been sorely lacking and should be the bare minimum going forward. I’ll continue fighting for transparency and accountability until a complete and ready FAFSA actually materializes.”
BACKGROUND:
Earlier this year, Chairwoman Foxx and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, blasted the Biden-Harris administration for illegally obstructing GAO’s investigation into the administration’s failure to implement the new FAFSA program.
On July 8, U.S. Representative Erin Houchin (R-IN), a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, introduced legislation requiring the Department of Education (ED) to make the FAFSA form available to students each year on October 1. Senator Cassidy introduced companion legislation in the U.S. Senate.
The FAFSA Deadline Act, H.R. 8932, requires ED to make the FAFSA available to students each year on October 1, putting an end to the “flexibility” in statute that has allowed the Department to string families along and release the FAFSA as late as January 1. Five major postsecondary education school associations endorsed the bill. Read about the bill here.
On July 10, the FAFSA Deadline Act passed the Committee on a broad, bipartisan basis. The final vote tally of 34-6 included nine Democrats joining the unified Republicans in support.
On July 11, Chairwoman Foxx, Senator Cassidy, and colleagues sent a letter demanding an update on the Office of Inspector General investigation into Biden’s botched FAFSA rollout. Read about it here.
On July 25, Chairwoman Foxx issued a subpoena for ED’s communications and documents associated with the “rollout” of the simplified FAFSA. The subpoena comes after months of hedging and delays on the part of Secretary Miguel Cardona and other ED officials.
