Washington Update

Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriations Update 
Ahead of the fiscal year ending early next week, congressional leadership over the weekend reached an agreement on a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through December 20. The House and Senate passed the measure yesterday. The bipartisan, bicameral agreement comes after the House majority leadership pulled a different funding measure from the floor last week after facing opposition from some Republicans and a united Democratic caucus.  

What’s Next: After passing the legislation, both chambers recess through the November elections. Upon their return, Congress may address additional FY25 appropriations legislation, the National Defense Authorization Act, and the Farm Bill, among other legislative items. 

Go Deeper: While the CR extends funding levels at their current Fiscal Year 2024 rates, Congress will still need to figure out a plan for Fiscal Year 2025. The most recent Fiscal Year 2025 funding levels in House and Senate appropriations bills for APLU priority accounts are available on our appropriations priorities chart.   

U.S. Department of Education Announces Gainful Employment/Financial Value Transparency Reporting Delay 
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) published an electronic announcement delaying the gainful employment/financial value transparency reporting deadline until January 15, 2025. APLU President Mark Becker released a statement on the announcement praising the delay while urging ED to further extend the reporting deadline until July 2025 to ensure accurate data. The request matches the timeline called for in a letter sent to ED led by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) and signed by 18 other senators.  

Go Deeper: For programs that fall under the definition of gainful employment (public and nonprofit nondegree programs and all for-profit programs), ED will calculate a debt-to-earnings ratio and apply a new earnings premium test. For non-gainful employment programs, debt-to-earnings rates and earnings premiums will be calculated and shared on a website maintained by ED, using the financial value transparency framework. Other parts of the regulation went into effect July 1, 2024. Since then, ED has twice delayed the reporting deadline for transparency provisions, first to October 1, 2024, and most recently to January 15, 2025.  

What’s Next: APLU continues to engage with ED on the need to further delay the reporting deadline in support of a smoother implementation while communicating regular updates to the APLU membership.  

Government Watchdog Reveals FAFSA 2024-25 Failures; Department of Education Reports Progress to Improve Next Year 
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal watchdog agency, released two reports detailing the administrative failures plaguing the 2024-25 FAFSA. Among the findings, the GAO found ED’s contractor for FAFSA development missed 25 contract deadlines, and skipped key testing steps that could have caught defects early. Due to insufficient planning and staffing, about three-fourths of student calls to the FAFSA help line went unanswered.  

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona sent a letter and released a white paper detailing ten steps ED has implemented to improve testing, communications, and guidance for the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle. 

What’s next: ED will begin end-to-end beta testing starting with hundreds of students on October 1, with plans to expand testing to include thousands of students. By testing all aspects of FAFSA application, sending data to institutions, making corrections, and packaging awards, ED hopes to fix mistakes throughout the process, rather than identifying mistakes after the fact. ED has said the full FAFSA should be available to all students by December 1.  

APLU Opposes “End Woke Higher Education Act” 
Last week, House Republicans passed H.R. 3724, the End Woke Higher Education Act. Title II of the bill includes the Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act, which supersedes First Amendment jurisprudence on time, place, and manner restrictions and imposes a host of requirements on institutions related to student organization governance. The bill’s provisions are uniquely targeted at public institutions of higher education, given the application of the First Amendment to state entities.  

Go deeper: Before the legislation was passed, APLU sent a letter to House Leadership opposing the Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act. As expressed in APLU’s letter, the bill: 

• Makes public colleges and universities much more vulnerable to outside provocateurs seeking to sow campus unrest and generate global attention 

• Undermines First Amendment jurisprudence permitting public universities to have reasonable, content-neutral, time/place/manner restrictions to ensure public university property can be used for intended education purposes 

• Would expose state institutions to new litigation threats, including from radical outside organizations, through the legislation’s waiver of state sovereign immunity and creation of new private rights of action 

• Would raise the need for substantial resources to be devoted to administration rather than students 

• A provision precluding public institutions from taking into consideration “an anticipated reaction by students or the public” as part of determining a security fee risks universities being unable to provide adequate security for events with foreseeably heightened security risks 

What’s next: Although passed by the House, it is all but certain it won’t be considered in the Senate this Congress.  

House Passes the Stop Campus Hazing Act 
In its final week of legislative session before the presidential election, The House of Representatives passed the Stop Campus Hazing Act (H.R. 5636). The bill: 

• Creates a federal definition of hazing 

• Requires for a statement of policy on hazing prevention and awareness programs 

• Requires two types of annual hazing transparency reports—one based off the Clery Annual Security Report (ASR) and a new “Campus Hazing Transparency Report,” the latter of which must be published twice annually  

Go deeper: The legislation uses different definitions of hazing incidents for each report. For purposes of the ASR, it requires a more expansive definition, including incidents occurring at student organizations that are not formally recognized by institutions. For purposes of the Campus Hazing Transparency Report, the definition is more limited to formally recognized student organizations. 

Earlier this month, APLU and others in the higher education community sent a letter to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce leadership. The letter underscores the commitment of colleges and universities to combat hazing and expresses gratitude for improvements throughout the legislative process that would reduce administrative compliance burdens. It also requests Congress continue to collaborate with the higher education community on further improvements.  
 
What’s next: As the legislative process moves forward in the Senate, APLU would like to see additional improvements to further the goals of the legislation and support clear and effective implementation. Most notably, the association believes the goals of transparency can be met with one required report a year, rather than multiple reports. Further, some definitions should be clearer and more limited. For example, the scope should only cover recognized student organizations. APLU has been deeply engaged on the legislation with the relevant committees in furtherance of legislative improvements. 

APLU Signs Joint Association Letter Supporting Patent Rights Bills in Senate 
APLU signed on to a joint association letter expressing support for three bills ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee mark-up related to patent rights; the PREVAIL, PERA, and IDEA Acts. Collectively, these three bills strengthen the U.S. patent system and support the innovation ecosystem that drives our nation’s technological leadership.  

What’s next: If these bills pass out of the committee during the mark-up, Senate leadership may then consider holding a floor vote. Each bill also has a bipartisan companion in the House, which will need to be voted on in the House to become law. We do not anticipate further legislative activity this Congress. APLU will continue to monitor the bills and provide updates to the membership as needed. 

APLU and AAU Release Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act Conference Priorities 
The House passed its version of the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in June. The Senate, which has only passed its version out of committee, has decided to forego a floor vote and instead enter into informal conferencing with the House. Negotiations regarding what priorities are included in the legislation have begun with the goal of voting on a final bill agreement in November after the election. 

Go deeper: APLU and AAU released a joint NDAA conference priorities letter. The two associations share concerns over provisions that would jeopardize the continuity of crucially important research and development projects, thereby undermining research universities’ ability to deliver scientific advancements that guarantee the nation’s technological leadership.  

What’s next: APLU and AAU will continue engaging with both committee and DOD staff as negotiations play out over the next month.