Polis Introduces Bill to Streamline FAFSA Measure Would Allow Students to Use Income Data from Two Years Prior

Statement

Rep. Jared Polis (CO-02) joined Reps. Phil Roe (R-TN), Joe Heck (R-NV), and Mark Pocan (D-WI) today in introducing a bipartisan bill to streamline the process by which students apply for federal financial aid for college. The Simplifying the Application for Student Aid Act would allow students who are filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application to use family income data from two years prior, rather than one year prior. This would help students apply for financial aid earlier so they can better prepare for their college costs.

"For many students and families, federal aid makes a college degree possible," Polis said. "But too often, the cumbersome application process leaves many families without much time to plan for the costs of financing a degree. Our bipartisan bill would improve this process by allowing families to start the application process sooner, helping them better prepare for their future."

"Simplifying the FAFSA and using two-year old tax information to complete the form go hand in hand with Colorado State University's commitment to access and breaking down the barriers students and families face when making decisions about college," Tom Biedscheid, Director of Student Financial Services, said. "This legislation would allow us to align both the admission and financial aid applications and literally provide months of time for our counselors to work with students and families and we thank Congressman Polis for introducing it."

"We want to make sure the process of verifying tax information does not stand in the way of deserving students receiving the financial aid they need to go to college," Ofelia Morales, Associate Director of Financial Aid at the University of Colorado Boulder, said. "Therefore, CU-Boulder is very much in support of using prior-prior year tax data and we thank Rep. Polis for introducing this Act."

Under the current process, students who wish to enroll in classes in the fall begin the FAFSA application in January, about the time they have their previous year's tax information. However, enabling students to start that process earlier would give financial aid administrators more time to put together aid packages and give students more time to plan for the cost of their education.

The measure would also improve the ability to link between the online FAFSA form and the income tax data stored by the Internal Revenue Service to automatically input income data into the FAFSA form, reducing the need to manually input information.

Polis is a senior member of the House Education and Workforce Committee and a former Chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education. He is also the founder and former superintendent of a network of charters schools in Colorado and New Mexico serving immigrants and English-language learners.

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