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On Tuesday, the Biden administration promised that hundreds of thousands more students than originally expected would be eligible for federal financial aid to attend college this year.
By Thursday, that promise was gone.
As lawmakers scrambled to reach an agreement on interim measures to keep the lights on in the federal government, they were struck down by Congress.
Some lawmakers accused the Biden administration of overstepping its authority. The Department of Education said it was simply trying to provide additional support to families in need.
The blame game will only add further stress to universities after those who put together offers of financial aid spent a week in limbo amid all the political back and forth.
Some, including Karen McCarthy, vice president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, fear the chaos in Washington will only further delay financial aid offers to students in the coming months. are doing.
“They’re all scrambling to figure out what their plans are right now,” she said in a podcast interview this week, referring to software providers that work with universities.
The quiet battle among Congressional budget experts was sparked by a surprise request from the Biden administration on Monday. The Education Department suddenly explained that the government plans to direct billions more to the federal Pell Grant program next year.. Pell grants help low-income families pay for college.
The measure could increase financial aid to hundreds of thousands of people. But it would also quickly deplete Congress’ reserves for the program and threaten the same aid in coming years.
Funding for that program was already disappearing, and it was disappearing fast. A new study released just last week suggests that Congress’ Pell coffers will be depleted by 2026, putting millions of people’s financial aid at risk. To make the new demands a reality, Congress would have needed to pass even more funding by later this year, amid a presidential election in which lawmakers are often at a standstill.
Some Congressional staff felt blindsided. By the time the news reached Congress on Thursday, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R), chair of the House Education Committee, had mocked the Department of Education for an “11th hour” request that could paralyze society.” did. Pell Grant program by creating a $7 billion funding gap. ”
In Fox’s mind, this was part of the agency’s “failed” rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) system.
In recent months, criticism of the Biden administration over the FAFSA has become a rare area of bipartisan agreement. Although this form is used by millions of students and parents each year, the Department of Education’s computer systems for it have not been fully modernized for decades. Federal watchdogs sounded the alarm about the problem in 2019, and Congress soon passed bipartisan legislation streamlining the system with the goal of getting tuition money into the hands of families who need it.
But since then, a wide range of students and universities have felt whiplash due to technical errors and unexpected delays. This week was no exception.
read more:Millions of students may have just weeks to compare college financial aid offers
The Education Department unexpectedly announced Tuesday that there was an error in the nearly three-year-old law. The regulator said this oversight led to a lack of widespread student change. That morning, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced new “technical updates” to the form, but was vague on details.
Questions quickly began swirling in higher education circles and in Washington whether the department was overstepping its authority to correct the mistake or whether Congress would need to pass new legislation. .
By Thursday, everything changed. After days of congressional negotiations, President Joe Biden has signed a stopgap spending package that will keep the federal government’s lights on for a few more weeks while reversing what his own education secretary announced just days earlier. signed. He set aside about $8 billion for the Pell program and protected his funds through 2027, but that level was lower than the Biden administration intended.
read more:Congress passes short-term deal to avoid partial government shutdown
As the dust settled, Democrats learned the final results and Republicans seemed a little confused about how the Biden administration was proceeding.
“I am extremely disappointed in this outcome,” Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Virginia, said in a statement Thursday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont) said the same thing.
This debacle does nothing to strengthen the already tenuous trust between the federal government and university officials across the country, many of whom have been pulling their hair out over the past few months amid a flurry of issues surrounding the new FAFSA. I’ve spent a lot of time on.
And despite the Department of Education’s insistence that this exchange will not delay matters further, it is just further evidence of how unpredictable and political this development has become. .
“The Department’s top priority continues to be to ensure that all students receive the maximum amount of financial aid to which they are entitled under the law,” a Department of Education spokesperson said in a statement. “We are fully committed to enforcing the FAFSA Simplification Act written by Congress and plan to implement this update without changing the implementation schedule.”
Some people aren’t persuaded, said John Fansmith, senior vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education, a top higher education advocacy group.
“I feel like when a kid aggressively says I didn’t do something,” he said in an interview. “You absolutely did it then.”
Bryce McKibben, who helped draft the bill passed in 2020, praised Congress for coming up with a solution in a short amount of time.
“This bill provides a timely correction to an inadvertent drafting error in the FAFSA Simplification Act that, if left unchecked, could have exacerbated the impending Pell Grant shortage.” he wrote to x.
Short-term Pell bill stalled indefinitely
The confusion also appears to be helping put the brakes on another bill that would expand financial aid to universities.
The bipartisan Workforce Pell Act, sponsored by Scott and Foxx, was originally scheduled for consideration in the House this week. This would extend Pell grants to a minimum of eight weeks of college programs.
Supporters of the bill say it is “sorely needed” and would help low-income students afford tuition for technology classes such as welding.
Opponents argue that many of these types of short-term programs are already eligible for Pell Grants, even if they are only 15 weeks long. The bill would also make online-only programs eligible for vouchers. If it becomes law, critics say, for-profit colleges could end up using the new funding to take advantage of vulnerable students.
“It’s very hard to imagine that an eight-week program can make you middle class,” said Rachel Fishman, deputy director of the education policy program at think tank New America.
Opposition to the bill’s bold proposals to pay for it has led some of higher education’s largest lobbying groups to oppose the bill, at least for now.
It is unclear when the bill will be considered again.
Zachary Schermele covers education and the latest news America today. You can reach me by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele.
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