Legislative Priorities -

It is expected that both the House and Senate will begin the 116th Congress with a focus on higher education. Both the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee as well as the House Education and Workforce Committee spent the end of the 115th Congress dealing with issues related to higher education, and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has indicated that reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) will be a top priority moving forward.

There are many issues within HEA that both sides of the aisle will begin to look at in the new Congress. These include the simplification of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and other student financial aid programs. For example, the FAFSA application currently has more than 100 questions; a bipartisan goal is to decrease this number by nearly 80 percent. Another component of the overhaul of HEA includes the potential to increase the types of technologies that can be used by students when applying for aid, simplifying the student loan and repayment system for current students, and creating new partnerships between the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and HEA.

Please see full Update for more information.