Cornyn, Rounds, colleagues introduce resolution to rectify Biden-Harris Admin's FAFSA fiasco

Sep. 20—WASHINGTON U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced a resolution yesterday along with 17 of their Senate GOP colleagues slamming the Biden-Harris Administration's botched rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2024-2025 school year.

The resolution condemns the continued problematic rollout, calls for the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to identify and fix any issues for this year, and asks leaders to testify before congressional committees regarding the disastrous rollout.

You can view the full resolution here https://www.rounds.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/rounds_fafsa_resolution.pdf.

The resolution was led by Rounds and is cosponsored by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN.), Susan Collins (R-ME), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Steve Daines (R-MT), James Lankford (R-OK), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Joe Manchin (I-WV), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Jim Risch (R-ID), Tim Scott (R-SC), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Roger Wicker (R-MS).

FAFSA historically has opened applications on Oct. 1 of the year prior to the start of the academic school year. For the academic year of 2024-2025, the applications opened 3 months later in December. ED subsequently did not start sending FAFSA data to universities until March. Because of this delay, many students did not receive their financial aid awards until after May 1, 2024, the date that many institutions require students to commit to attending for the fall semester.

For the academic year of 2025-2026, ED has already announced that the applications will again be delayed until December of this year.