Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARSHALL. Madam President, today should be a day of celebration. National college decision day marks a pivotal moment in the lives of millions of students across the country, a day that many of us still remember ourselves. It is meant to be a day of excitement and anticipation of young men's and women's bright futures ahead.

But, instead, I rise today frustrated and disappointed. As we stand here today, 17 million hopeful students are victims of the Biden administration's bureaucratic nightmare. Students' futures are in limbo, and their decisions for higher education are stalled as they continue their monthslong wait for answers on the Federal financial assistance that will be available to them.

Millions of families nationwide rely on the FAFSA process to unlock the doors to higher education. Still, the Department of Education has left 82 percent of them unable to even submit their FAFSA applications for consideration--82 percent of them can't complete the form.

In Kansas, over 11,000 students have been affected by this botched FAFSA rollout, and this number represents the nearly 30-percent decline in completed FAFSA applications. I wholeheartedly believe this drop stems from the application process being so dysfunctional and filled with glitches, that many Kansas students and families have simply given up.

This is certainly unacceptable. These repeated months of delays by the Department of Education in rolling out the new FAFSA application have left millions of students and schools in limbo with no clear path forward for the upcoming school year.

Think about the uncertainty these delays breed. The dysfunction within this Education Department has sent shock waves across the country. For 3 years, we have watched the Biden administration spend all the Department of Education's energy on finding a way to fulfill the President's unconstitutional campaign promise to forgive millions in student loan debts, meanwhile leaving new students out of luck.

Now, due to their tunnel vision, colleges lack the vital data needed to formulate financial aid offers, scholarships, and grants, leaving students and their families in the dark about how they will afford tuition, books, and other college essentials.

And who suffers the most? Well, it is first-generation and low-income college students--middle income students as well. Very few students are able to afford college on their own. They need this FAFSA application. Whether you are waiting for a State scholarship or for a military scholarship, we rely on this assistance to help fulfill and pursue our own American dreams.

I stand here today as a very lucky person, a first-generation college student myself who went to a community college, and I certainly understand the struggles of those who are waiting to get into college, wondering if they can afford and where they can afford to go to.

The help that students and colleges are waiting for from the Department of Education isn't just on loans; it is also on scholarships and grants. Take, for example, the Promise Scholarship in Kansas. This award is a lifeline for many students bridging the gap between financial aid and the cost of education in critical fields; however, this highly sought-after scholarship relies on--guess what. It relies on a fully processed FAFSA to accurately award students that funding.

For months, my colleagues and I have called on this administration to allocate the resources they are using to concoct their student loan forgiveness scheme to help our FAFSA applicants and address the FAFSA delays to help deliver certainty to our students and families.

We have written letters; we have hosted hearings; we have sponsored legislation. Still, here we are, as college campuses are now being terrorized by far-left, pro-Hamas protestors threatening the safety and security of Jewish students, and we are no closer to an answer on FAFSA today than we were when we started.

This is why we need changes this November, not only in the White House but in the Department of Education. They need to reassess their priorities and their propaganda and their politics. Our students deserve better, and it is time to reset and focus on the real priorities at the Department of Education. The futures of our young men and women are at stake. Time is of the essence. The clock is ticking on millions of students' futures with graduating day fastly approaching.

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