Bipartisan Committee Leaders in Senate and House Raise Concerns Over Rollout of Next Year’s FAFSA

WASHINGTON - Bipartisan, bicameral committee leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives urged the Department of Education (ED) to prioritize the timely rollout of the 2025-2026 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. FAFSA provides schools with the information they need to produce financial aid offers so students can determine if and how they can afford college.

"We are joining together as a bipartisan group of authorizing and appropriations committee leadership to express our concerns with the number of errors and delays in the implementation of the new FAFSA. We urge the Department to take steps to ensure these problems do not occur again for the 2025-2026 school year. Together, we want to provide the opportunity of postsecondary education to as many of America's students who choose to pursue this path," wrote the lawmakers. "The rocky implementation of the new FAFSA caused a financial aid traffic jam with weighty implications for students. … These barriers pose added challenges to students and families entering higher education this year and make it less likely that current students will continue in their college journey this year and in the years ahead."

"We implore you to ensure the next application cycle for the 2025-2026 FAFSA goes smoothly," continued the lawmakers. "Further, given the leadership transition within the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), we urge you to demonstrate hands-on management and conduct a thorough review of actions within FSA in order to rectify the failures of this FAFSA cycle."

The letter was signed by U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), chair of the HELP Committee; Bill Cassidy M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee; Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Susan Collins (R-ME), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), chair of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) Subcommittee; and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), ranking member of the Senate LHHS Subcommittee. They are joined by U.S. Representatives Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chair of the House Education and the Workforce (E&W) Committee; Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-VA), ranking member of the House E&W Committee; Tom Cole (R-OK), chair of the House Appropriations Committee; Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee and the House LHHS subcommittee; and Robert Aderholt (R-AL), chair of the House Labor-HHS Subcommittee.

This letter comes as ED has faced serious issues in implementing the new FAFSA form required by the FAFSA Simplification Act for this current year, 2024-2025. This is the first new FAFSA since the FAFSA Simplification Act was passed by Congress in 2020. Despite FAFSA normally being ready by October, the new FAFSA form was not available to students until December 31, 2023. ED was then delayed for months in getting the correct information to colleges until April. According to the National College Attainment Network, FAFSA applications for 2024-2025 are down 24 percent, but have been improving in recent weeks.

Specifically, the lawmakers expressed concerns that ED is again behind on regularly scheduled actions to ensure the 2025-2026 FAFSA is ready for students in October. The Department has not published the draft FAFSA for 2025-2026 for comment, which is normally done in February or March.

Additionally, ED has told congressional staff that it remains focused on this year's implementation, and it is not ready to talk about next year or any new plans to add more substantive consumer testing to help prevent future errors. The lawmakers emphasized that any delays in FAFSA implementation for next year could prevent another class of students and families from accessing crucial financial aid information as they choose the college they can afford to attend.

The lawmakers' full letter is available HERE and below:

Dear Secretary Cardona:  

The Department of Education's (Department) ongoing challenges to implement smoothly the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in a timely and effective manner are causing delays in the college enrollment process for millions of students. We are joining together as a bipartisan group of authorizing and appropriations committee leadership to express our concerns with the number of errors and delays in the implementation of the new FAFSA. We urge the Department to take steps to ensure these problems do not occur again for the 2025-2026 school year. Together, we want to provide the opportunity of postsecondary education to as many of America's students who choose to pursue this path.

On an annual basis almost 18 million students depend on the FAFSA to access federal, state, and institutional financial aid to pay for college. Despite having three years to prepare the roll out of the new FAFSA, five months into 2024, the Department is still working to iron out errors and fulfill the necessary reprocessing of forms.

The rocky implementation of the new FAFSA caused a financial aid traffic jam with weighty implications for students. Without the financial information provided by the FAFSA, institutions cannot issue financial aid offers. Without these offers, it is more difficult for students and families to choose where to enroll. These barriers pose added challenges to students and families entering higher education this year and make it less likely that current students will continue in their college journey this year and in the years ahead.

We implore you to ensure the next application cycle for the 2025-2026 FAFSA goes smoothly. Further, given the leadership transition within the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) we urge you to demonstrate hands-on management and conducta thorough review of actions within FSA in order to rectify the failures of this FAFSA cycle.

This year's FAFSA was not ready for the expected October 1 application opening, and the public was not given clear information about when the FAFSA would be released, which ultimately was not until December 31^st. There are signs that the next cycle will face similar issues. The Department typically publishes the draft FAFSA for the next award year in February or March for comment. This has not yet happened. The Department has told our staff that it is not ready to talk about next year or any new plans to add more substantive consumer testing, which would help prevent future errors.

In the interest of ensuring a smooth FAFSA rollout for students and families next cycle, we insist on full transparency from you and your staff. We request that you provide weekly updates on the timeline, consumer testing, and bug fixes on the 2025-2026 FAFSA to our staff beginning the first week in June. We also request the Department provide a list of any current errors or issues with the form that require resolution before next FAFSA cycle to us by July8, 2024 and the planned timeline for resolution of those issues. Further, we request that a beta version of the online form be made available to us by no later than September 9, 2024, with a timeline for testing the online form with real students and financial aid administrators and bringing the application live. 

We hope you can commit to charting a path forward with us together.

Sincerely,

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