Senate Passes Gardner's Bill Simplifying FAFSA

Statement

The United States Senate recently passed bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) last Congress to simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) filing process for nearly 20 million students and their families. The Faster Access to Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Act will allow students to answer at least 11 and as many as 22 questions with just one click.

Gardner's legislation was included in a bipartisan agreement to permanently fund historically black colleges and universities and minority serving institutions.

"I applaud the bipartisan agreement this week that will provide funding certainty to historically black colleges and universities and other minority serving institutions, while also improving the FAFSA. Ensuring students are able to complete their FAFSA forms each year is crucial to continuing their education," said Senator Gardner. "This bipartisan legislation makes the complex process easier for students and their parents so that no student has to miss out on educational opportunities because completing their forms was more difficult than it needed to be."

With the FAFSA Act, students will be able to let the IRS securely send the Department of Education their federal tax information with one click. The bill will also help simplify the process for getting through income-driven repayment applications and the student aid "verification" process.

According to the Colorado Department of Higher Education, during the 2015-2016 academic year over 50 percent of Colorado high school graduates did not finish their FAFSA. The current system is unnecessarily burdensome, and those students could have been eligible for almost $50 million more in federal support to further their education had they completed the form. The FAFSA Act is an important step towards making this overcomplicated process easier for students and families.

The Faster Access to Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Act will make FAFSA completion easier and more secure for nearly 20 million students by:

Improving and securing the way individuals' IRS tax information is sent to the Department of Education.
Turning a seven-click process into a single-click process -- that answers at least 11 and up to 22 questions -- to transfer IRS tax filling data to the Department of Education.
Reducing the burdensome verification processes for students and parents filing for aid.
Automating the annual process for over 7 million borrowers in income driven repayment to recertify their income and remain in their repayment plan.
The current process for students or parents to transfer tax information to the FAFSA requires the applicant to give direct permission to the IRS to send tax information to ED. This requires the applicant to jump from the FAFSA website to the IRS website and back to the ED website, which takes a total of seven clicks.

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