WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS), joined bipartisan, bicameral committee leaders in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives in a letter to U.S Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona urging the U.S. Department of Education (Education) to prioritize the timely rollout of the 2025-2026 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, demonstrating the broad disappointment and frustration with this administration and its lack of leadership.

FAFSA provides schools with the information they need to produce financial aid offers so students can determine if and how they can afford college.  

“We are joining together as a bipartisan group of authorizing and appropriations committee leadership to express our concerns with the number of errors and delays in the implementation of the new FAFSA. We urge the Department to take steps to ensure these problems do not occur again for the 2025-2026 school year,” the lawmakers wrote. “The rocky implementation of the new FAFSA caused a financial aid traffic jam with weighty implications for students... These barriers pose added challenges to students and families entering higher education this year and make it less likely that current students will continue in their college journey this year and in the years ahead.” 

“We implore you to ensure the next application cycle for the 2025-2026 FAFSA goes smoothly,” the lawmakers continued. “Further, given the leadership transition within the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) we urge you to demonstrate hands-on management and a thorough review of actions within FSA in order to rectify the failures of this FAFSA cycle.” 

BACKGROUND:

This letter comes as Education has faced serious issues in implementing the new FAFSA program for this current year, 2024-2025. Despite FAFSA normally being ready by October, the new form was not available to students until December 31, 2023. Education was then delayed for months in getting the correct information to colleges until April 2024. According to the National College Attainment Network, FAFSA applications for 2024-2025 are down 24%.  

Specifically, the lawmakers expressed concerns that Education is again behind on regularly scheduled actions to ensure FAFSA is ready for students in October. The department has not published the draft FAFSA for 2025-2026 for comment, which is normally done in February or March.  

Additionally, Education has told congressional staff that it is not ready to talk about next year or any new plans to add more substantive consumer testing to help prevent future errors. The lawmakers emphasized that any delays in FAFSA implementation for next year could prevent another class of students and families from accessing crucial financial aid information as they choose the college they can afford to attend.   

Senator Capito has been working to ensure Education is held accountable for its FAFSA fiasco. On April 30, 2024 Ranking Member Capito pressed Secretary Cardona on failures at Education to get the FAFSA out on time. She also led a group of Republicans on National College Decision Day last week in a series of floor speeches highlighting the issue. Click here to watch Senator Capito’s floor remarks.

Read the full letter here or below: 

Dear Secretary Cardona:

The Department of Education’s (Department) ongoing challenges to implement smoothly the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in a timely and effective manner are causing delays in the college enrollment process for millions of students. We are joining together as a bipartisan group of authorizing and appropriations committee leadership to express our concerns with the number of errors and delays in the implementation of the new FAFSA. We urge the Department to take steps to ensure these problems do not occur again for the 2025-2026 school year. Together, we want to provide the opportunity of postsecondary education to as many of America’s students who choose to pursue this path.  

On an annual basis almost 18 million students depend on the FAFSA to access federal, state, and institutional financial aid to pay for college. Despite having three years to prepare the roll out of the new FAFSA, five months into 2024, the Department is still working to iron out errors and fulfill the necessary reprocessing of forms. 

The rocky implementation of the new FAFSA caused a financial aid traffic jam with weighty implications for students. Without the financial information provided by the FAFSA, institutions cannot issue financial aid offers. Without these offers, it is more difficult for students and families to choose where to enroll. These barriers pose added challenges to students and families entering higher education this year and make it less likely that current students will continue in their college journey this year and in the years ahead.    

We implore you to ensure the next application cycle for the 2025-2026 FAFSA goes smoothly. Further, given the leadership transition within the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) we urge you to demonstrate hands-on management and a thorough review of actions within FSA in order to rectify the failures of this FAFSA cycle. 

This year’s FAFSA was not ready for the expected October 1 application opening, and the public was not given clear information about when the FAFSA would be released, which ultimately was not until December 31st.  There are signs that the next cycle will face similar issues. The Department typically publishes the draft FAFSA for the next award year in February or March for comment. This has not yet happened. The Department has told our staff that it is not ready to talk about next year or any new plans to add more substantive consumer testing, which would help prevent future errors.  

In the interest of ensuring a smooth FAFSA rollout for students and families next cycle, we insist on full transparency from you and your staff. We request that you provide weekly updates on the timeline, consumer testing, and bug fixes on the 2025-2026 FAFSA to our staff beginning the first week in June. We also request the Department provide a list of any current errors or issues with the form that require resolution before next FAFSA cycle to us by July 8, 2024 and the planned timeline for resolution of those issues. Further, we request that a beta version of the online form be made available to us by no later than September 9, 2024, with a timeline for testing the online form with real students and financial aid administrators and bringing the application live. 

We hope you can commit to charting a path forward with us together.

Sincerely,

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