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

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, we have been hearing from my colleagues about the FAFSA fiasco, and I join them in expressing concern about it; telling you about some of the complaints that we have heard from Nebraskans; and, hopefully, draw more attention to this so that we can see it fixed.

This failed FAFSA launch: It was late. It was chock-full of glitches and complications. It threw a wrench in the plans of both students and universities. I know this not just because I have read the news but because my office has heard from these students and these schools. Both public and private universities in Nebraska, as well as local education nonprofits--they have reached out with their frustrations over this rollout and the chaos that it has caused.

High school seniors have a hard enough time making weighty decisions about their futures, but the FAFSA fiasco is multiplying the stress and the complications of that decision process.

One high school guidance counselor in Lexington, NE, said the FAFSA delay is creating barriers and curveballs for students who need those scholarships.

A counselor in North Platte said it is causing serious problems for her students as well.

Students don't get the different scholarships they would like to have, and they're not getting enough money to pay for college.

Almost 18 million students across the country usually complete FAFSA in a typical year. This year, the number is only closer to 5 million. Millions less will get the financial aid they need to attend school because of the Department of Education's failed rollout.

So this is a national crisis, and it is not just affecting college applicants. It is affecting colleges themselves. The director of financial aid at Nebraska Wesleyan said the FAFSA problem is forcing them to condense what would normally be a 7-month financial aid process down to only 3 months.

The chancellor who oversees financial assistance at the University of Nebraska in Omaha said they are ``way behind.''

Each additional blunder by the Department of Education puts them even further behind. He said they are going to have to adjust their decision, orientation, and onboarding processes all because of FAFSA.

So how did we get to this point? I would say, in short, it is due to political pandering. The Department of Education put FAFSA on the back burner because they wanted to prop up President Biden's splashy student loan cancellation scheme.

And we know all about that scheme in my State of Nebraska. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers spearheaded the Biden v. Nebraska Supreme Court challenge to the President's $400 billion student loan giveaway. The proposal was nonsensical, and it was deeply, deeply unfair. It forced American taxpayers to bear the burden of loans that they never took out.

Sources told the publication Inside Higher Ed that the Education Department neglected FAFSA overhaul in favor of plans that were more politically high profile--primarily, that student loan scheme.

The administration bulldozed millions of students. Why? To pander for votes. My colleagues and I are here today to call out this catastrophe, but we are also urging the administration to fix it.

In January, I joined Senator Cassidy in sending a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking them to investigate the negative impact the FAFSA rollout is having on students. We pushed the administration on what they plan to change for the next cycle.

President Biden's Department of Education is accountable to the American people for this failure, and they are responsible for fixing it.

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