Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Educational Opportunity and Success Act, a bill to strengthen the Federal TRIO Programs and improve their administration. Across the Nation, TRIO helps students from disadvantaged backgrounds gain access to a college education and provide many of the supports that they need to prepare for, succeed in, and graduate from higher education programs. I would very much like to thank Senator Baldwin, Senator Capito, and Senator Tester for joining me as original cosponsors.

In the State of Maine, TRIO Programs serve students from all over our State and are focused on increasing educational opportunities for first generation, low-income, and disabled students. From 2007 to 2017, TRIO has expanded from 20 programs to 28 in our State and has expanded from serving 6,690 students to nearly 7,500 students in our State. Over the course of my Senate service, I have been so inspired by the stories of countless TRIO students with whom I have talked. They have described to me firsthand the positive impact of these programs on their academic success and on their futures.

For example, Autumn Mallet from Bangor, ME, graduated from Bangor High School in 2015, unsure about whether she even wanted to pursue higher education. Neither she nor her parents had any experience with higher education. That is very typical of what I found in talking with students who are enrolled in the TRIO Programs. Autumn decided to enroll at Eastern Maine Community College, where she connected with TRIO's Student Support Services Program. Autumn called TRIO ``irreplaceable'' and her ``full support system.'' The academic advisers were her ``go-to people'' when it came to signing up for classes, finding tutors, navigating financial aid, and advocating for herself.

Autumn graduated in May 2018 with an associate's degree in liberal studies and secondary education, and she has gone on to the University of Maine where she is currently earning her bachelor's degree. At the University, she also taps into the resources of the Student Support Services Program. And, very movingly, Autumn is giving back to TRIO. She is a TRIO peer mentor at Eastern Maine Community College, helping students, just like herself, successfully navigate higher education and giving them the tools and the confidence to succeed. For Autumn, TRIO has made all the difference as she has pursued her own goals and helped other students achieve theirs.

Congress created the TRIO Programs because it recognized that low- income, first-generation students often face significant financial and societal obstacles to accessing and achieving success in higher education. The Educational Opportunity and Success Act would better serve those students by implementing key reforms.

First, and most important, our bipartisan bill would reauthorize the TRIO Programs for an additional 5 years.

Second, our bill would instruct the Department of Education to publish guidance at least 90 days before each grant competition, giving colleges and universities adequate opportunity to prepare the successful applications to secure the funding needed to offer the TRIO Programs.

Third, our bill would remove the administrative burdens in the application process for these schools, making sure that Federal funds get out the door more efficiently and to the programs and the students they are meant to serve. Under the current administrative process, many colleges and universities experience delays while the Department reviews administrative errors before making all of the grant awards. This reform would help to expedite the grant process.

Fourth, our legislation would institute commonsense guidelines at the Department of Education for TRIO grant applications.

Let me tell you what happened in 2017. In that year, the Department initially rejected dozens of applications for the Upward Bound Program based on arbitrary, nonsubstantive formatting criteria, such as line spacing and font size irregularities. This was bureaucracy at its worst. One of those applications was from the University of Maine at Presque Isle, which had been a longtime recipient of funding to provide TRIO Programs. Here is what happened with the University of Maine at Presque Isle. It submitted a 65-page application. In that application, the University of Maine of Presque Isle used 1\1/2\-line spacing instead of double spacing in the text appearing in the graphics on two of its application's 65 pages.

I am not making this up. For that reason alone, because the spacing was 1\1/2\ lines rather than 2 on just 2 of the graphs in a 65-page application, the Department of Education rejected it--based on that alone.

The Department's bureaucratic decision would have denied 960 disadvantaged Maine high school students the chance to fulfill their academic potential. Imagine that--that 960 students, who needed the support of the TRIO Program to be successful, would not have been served because of a tiny formatting error on 2 pages of a 65-page application. It was nothing substantive, just a formatting error.

After months of advocacy, I was able to work with the Department of Education and my Appropriations colleagues to reverse this ill- conceived decision, and I am very happy to report that the University of Maine of Presque Isle is today serving those students.

Our bill would prevent the Department of Education from rejecting applications simply on the basis of the formatting criteria that it suggests and instead would establish a straightforward process of correction for applications with minor formatting or budgeting errors. This is a commonsense reform that will prevent unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles in the future--obstacles that have a real impact on the lives of the students who are intended to benefit from the TRIO Programs.

Fifth, our bill would make it simpler for students who receive free and reduced-priced lunches and Pell grants to qualify for the TRIO Programs. Proving income eligibility can be a barrier to services, and this bill would make it easier to identify potential participants for the TRIO Programs.

The bill would also update TRIO eligibility criteria to reflect the most recent requirements for Federal financial aid. This would ensure that TRIO administrators would not have to consult multiple data sources and can instead use a student's most recent financial aid information to determine eligibility for the TRIO Programs rather than having them go through an additional process.

Finally, the bill would require the Department of Education to conduct additional virtual training sessions, better ensuring that all areas of the country--especially our small, rural communities--have the ability to know about and access the TRIO Programs.

As the longtime cochair of the Congressional TRIO Caucus, I have long supported the TRIO Programs. I have worked to ensure that they are reaching the students who most need them. So many students in Maine and across the country have truly had their lives changed by these wonderful programs, such as Upward Bound. They have been introduced to the world of higher education. They have been given the support they need to succeed. In my State, where so many families simply do not have experience with higher education, the TRIO Programs have made all the difference for their sons and daughters.

I urge my colleagues to support the bipartisan Educational Opportunity and Success Act.

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