Washington Update

FY24 Appropriations Update 
Last night, congressional leadership shared details on a continuing resolution ahead of Friday’s funding deadline. Under the plan, the Agriculture-FDA, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD bills are extended through March 8 and the remaining eight bills through March 22.  

Text on the first four bills, along with the Commerce-Justice-Science and Interior-Environment bills, is expected over the weekend, with the House likely to take up the legislation as early as Wednesday.  

Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-TX) previously reached an agreement on subcommittee funding levels, though they remain engaged with leadership in resolving remaining outstanding policy issues on some of the bills. As of February 29, details on subcommittee funding levels have not been publicly released.  

Short-Term Continuing Resolution Adjusts Pell Grant Eligibility Formula, Shores Up Program Budget 
The FAFSA Simplification Act that Congress enacted in 2020 expanded Pell Grant eligibility beginning in award year 2024-25. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced a change to its interpretation of the law that would result in many more dependent students with moderate and higher incomes becoming eligible for Pell Grants.  

ED’s new interpretation would expand Pell eligibility to 280,000 additional middle- and higher-income students, potentially costing more than $3 billion annually and moving the Pell Grant budget closer to a shortfall earlier than expected.  

The continuing resolution introduced on Wednesday will fix a drafting error in the 2020 law, thus overturning ED’s latest interpretation and applying the savings to the Pell program to shore up its budget.  

If enacted, the Pell Grant shortfall is expected to be postponed at least until Fiscal Year 26. The Congressional Budget Office is expected to soon issue updated projections for the program. 

For additional information, view this House Education and Workforce Committee fact sheet. 

ED FAFSA Updates: In “First Half of March,” ED Plans to Send FAFSA Data to Institutions  
APLU understands the tremendous challenges the difficult FAFSA rollout has created for students, their families, and institutions. The association is in regular contact with the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and continues to push for an expedient resolution to the challenges created by ED’s delays. APLU is underscoring the concerns heard from member institutions in our communications. Here are key FAFSA developments since APLU’s most recent Washington Update: 

ED Will Expand Release of Test Data for Institutions to Prepare  

• To help institutions prepare to receive real FAFSA data from students, ED will provide 100 test Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) for institutions to download and will proactively send a test file to each institution. Institutions must have in place a new updated Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) agreement, signed by the president, to receive test and real ISIRs. 

ED Will Deploy FAFSA Support to Lower-Resourced Institutions 

• ED is using $50 million from an existing contract to deploy federal and nonprofit financial aid experts to more than 100 under-resourced colleges starting this week to increase FAFSA completion and processing financial aid awards. While the list has not been made publicly available, ED has stated that it will focus on HBCUs, Minority-Serving Institutions, colleges with high Pell enrollment and resource constraints, and those who request additional support.  

ED Announces Temporary FAFSA Workaround for Eligible Students whose Parents or Spouses Do Not Have a Social Security Number 

• Currently, a technical glitch prevents eligible students from submitting the online FAFSA if their parent, spouse, or other required contributor does not have a Social Security Number. Citizen and legal permanent resident students are eligible for federal student aid, even if their parents or spouses are noncitizens. The ED recently announced a temporary fix for these students. The step-by-step guidance can be found here. Advocates and members of Congress have been urging ED to fix this issue as soon as possible, to ensure that eligible students do not miss federal, state, private, and institutional aid deadlines.  

APLU, Higher Education Community Submit Comments on DOL RFI on Schedule A 
The U.S. Department of Labor released a Request for Information on adding STEM occupations to Schedule A of the permanent labor certification process. The agency’s Schedule A pre-certifies a set of occupations as having insufficient workers available, and that the employment of the green card beneficiary would not adversely affect domestic labor.  

APLU joined the higher education community in submitting comments in response to the department’s request. The community notes the proposed Schedule A expansion to include STEM specialists would be attractive to prospective international students and provide another pathway for these students to remain in the U.S. post-completion. The letter also details how including STEM occupations on Schedule A would help institutions attract STEM faculty, researchers, and professionals, contributing to research, the teaching and training of the U.S. STEM workforce. 

Bipartisan Workforce Pell Update 
This week, the House had planned to consider the Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act but pulled it from consideration after mounting opposition. APLU joined the higher education community in expressing opposition to the offset to the bill. Additionally, in a late breaking development as the bill was nearing floor consideration, influential labor organizations such as NEA and AFT expressed concern, which likely had a significant influence on the decision of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to oppose the legislation. 

The legislation would allow Pell Grants to be used for short-term programs at least eight weeks long. To partially pay for the expansion, the bill would require private colleges and universities that are subject to the endowment excise tax to pay the U.S. Department of Education annually for unpaid student loan balances, even if they are forgiven.  

The offset also would have restricted endowment tax schools from getting Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG) except in situations when certain stipulations are met.  

The prospects of the bill remain uncertain as lawmakers may attempt to address concerns raised about the legislation. APLU will continue to oppose it with the latest proposed offset since it sets a deeply concerning precedent that Congress could easily expand in future bills as additional offsets are needed. 

ED Releases Voter Toolkit 
In March 2021, an executive order called for expanded opportunities for Americans to register to vote and obtain information about participating in the electoral process. Following the order’s release, ED published a voter toolkit to provide institutions with resources to assist eligible students with voter registration. The resources may be helpful for institutions in meeting obligations under the Higher Education Act to support student voter registration. 

APLU Submits Letter to USDA on Public Access Implementation Plan 
APLU responded to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s call for public comment on its updated Implementation Plan to Increase Public Access to USDA-funded Research Results. Following the 2022 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy memorandum: Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research, all government agencies have been guided to create or update existing public access policies. 

APLU has also commented on public access plans published by NIH, NIST, NSF, and NASA. In our responses, we have focused on the importance of consistency across agencies in reducing the burden on institutions and researchers, while ensuring less resourced institutions and disciplines are not shut out of the research enterprise.