Ranking Member Cassidy on Biden-Harris Admin Missing October 1 FAFSA Release for Second Year in a Row, Threatening Students’ Access to College

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released a statement following the Biden-Harris administration's announcement that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form for next school year will for the second year in a row not be available for students by the traditional October 1 release date. The Biden-Harris Department of Education (DeptEd), which has a troubling pattern of blowing through even its own self-imposed deadlines, says the form will not be ready for students until December. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona had testified to Congress that FAFSA would be ready for students by October.

"This is completely unacceptable. For the second year in a row, the Biden-Harris administration is going to miss the traditional date to make the FAFSA form available to students," said Dr. Cassidy. "We saw last year that colleges cannot create financial aid packages without timely FAFSA information. Many students may forgo college when they cannot choose a school because they do not know their eligibility for student aid."

"While the Biden-Harris administration has once again failed to properly implement FAFSA on time, it has prioritized transferring the burden of college debt onto taxpayers who chose not to go to college or already paid off their loans," continued Dr. Cassidy. "It is clear this administration is more worried about buying votes for the November election than ensuring students get the financial aid they need to afford college."

Before 2023, the annual FAFSA form was typically available by October 1, giving students and schools enough time to fill out the application and process financial aid offers ahead of acceptance deadlines. The Department has said it will not publish the draft FAFSA for comment this year, which is normally done by March. Due to these concerns, Cassidy previously led Republican and Democrat congressional leaders in demanding answers from DeptEd on these FAFSA delays. He also introduced bicameral legislation to set the legal deadline for the DeptEd to make FAFSA available as October 1.

This comes as the Biden administration failed to get the FAFSA form for this school year fully up and running until late January. DeptEd was then delayed in getting the information to colleges until March. In April, DeptEd announced that roughly 30 percent of FAFSA forms had processing or data errors and were not reprocessed until after May 1, the deadline for many students to choose their college. This prevented colleges from creating financial aid offers, forcing students and families to make this life-changing decision without information about their eligibility for financial aid.

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