To watch Senator Capito’s remarks, click here or on the image above.

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 a press conference with her colleagues, led by U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, along with U.S. Senators, Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.), to discuss the Biden administration’s failure to properly implement the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) program. These delays prevent students and families from accessing crucial financial aid information as they choose the college they can afford to attend. 

At the press conference, Ranking Member Cassidy announced that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has begun an investigation into the Department of Education’s (DOE) incompetent mishandling of FAFSA following a bicameral request from Republican lawmakers, including Senator Capito, last week. It was also announced that the HELP Committee has launched a website for students, guidance counselors, college admissions faculty, financial aid administrators and others to report issues they have had with the FAFSA process. Those who have experienced complications with FAFSA can access the hotline at www.help.senate.gov/FAFSA.  

This week, the Biden administration announced that it will delay the transmission of FAFSA information to colleges and universities until mid-March. Given that the transmission of FAFSA information to schools was supposed to begin in January, these further delays create the real likelihood that many students will forgo college because they cannot choose a school without knowing their eligibility for student aid. Senator Capito has been vocal about the administration’s failure with the FAFSA rollout and spoke about this during a Senate Republican Leadership press conference last month.

Video of the full press conference can be found here.

HIGHLIGHTS: 

ON THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NOT ACCOUNTING FOR INFLATION IN ITS NEW MODEL: “Well, I think Senator Cassidy has done a good job of setting out the dates, the missed dates, the missed obligations that the Department of Ed has repeatedly pushed back filled with glitches. One glitch that they are supposedly trying to fix is… the glitch that would have resulted in less monies available for federal aid because the they did not account for inflation. Imagine this administration, who's had all this inflation, and they don't account for it in the cost of going to college.”

ON HOW THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION’S FAILURE WILL AFFECT STUDENTS AND FAMILIES: “So put yourself in their shoes: an 18-year-old trying to figure this out with their guidance counselor, or with their parents, or the teacher, whoever they're working with, and then to have deadline after deadline moved. And then you finally get the nerve to go, you're going to go for it, and… you're going to be squeezed into two to three weeks to make… one of the biggest decisions of your life because of the ineptness of the Department of Education giving you the adequate time that they're supposed to give you.”

ON THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NOT TAKING THE ISSUE SERIOUSLY: “So, I think that [the DOE] neglected to follow the law here. They've been excuse after excuse and, quite frankly, I think this is one of the biggest obligations of the department. It's certainly something here in the Senate we care about, because every year we look at Pell grants. Every year we look at what the affordability issues are and how important they are. “

ON THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION EMPLOYEES NOT SHOWING UP TO WORK IN-PERSON: “So, let's just look at the Department of Education for a minute. The building is a ghost town. The GAO study showed that the Department of Education here in Washington had a 17, 17% utilization rate. In other words… the space in the building was only being utilized 17%. You have a major mistake developing on a three-year problem on the FAFSA. Now I know I problem-solve best in person. I know I problem-solve best when I have my team around me. We talk through the issues. The Department of Ed hasn't even called their people into the main office here in Washington, D.C. and now they've got mud on their face and they're trying to make excuses that they didn't have resources, they don't have time. I'm sorry. There's no excuse. It's a priority for us. It should be a priority for them. Get people back to work fix this, now.

ON THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION STILL LACKING A CONCRETE TIMELINE TO FIX THE FAFSA: “And also, in [ ED’s] announcement they said- the announcement they made yesterday that Bill [Cassidy] talked about- they said ‘well it could be March or it could be later in the Spring.’ They never committed to a date here. So, with their history, I think Chancellor Sarah Tucker [of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission] in West Virginia is very concerned. Is it March 1? Is it March 15? Is it April? Is it May?”

ON HOW THIS FAILURE WILL AFFECT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: “And this has ramifications for the institutions as well. Because if their enrollment is down in year one, their enrollment is going to be down in year four. That's got big ramifications for colleges and universities.”

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