Senator Collins Statement on Dept. of Education’s Delayed FAFSA Rollout

Dept. of Education to miss October 1 FAFSA form release date for second year in a row.

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released a statement following the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) announcement that the release of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form will be delayed until December 1, 2024. This is the second year in a row that ED has missed the traditional October 1 FAFSA form release date.

"The Administration's botched rollout of last year's FAFSA program was inexcusable. The Department of Education is now announcing - once again - that the FAFSA will not be ready for all students on time. This will create real life consequences for students in Maine and throughout the country. As I saw firsthand when I worked at Husson University, federal financial aid is often the difference between whether or not students go to college," said Senator Collins. "The Department of Education must be held accountable for these failures. Students and their families deserve to have access to federal student aid in a timely manner."

Senator Collins co-sponsored the bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act, whichpassed Congress in 2020, and required the Department of Education to roll out a new simplified FAFSA program by January 1, 2024. Despite having three years to prepare, the application was only made available for borrowers for 30 minutes on December 30, 2023 and then one additional hour on December 31, 2023. The application was then only accessible for sporadic periods until it became fully live on January 6, 2024. After the FAFSA went fully live, it was still plagued with issues, including delivering incorrect applicant data to colleges.

In April, Senator Collins questioned Secretary of the Department of Education Miguel Cardona on the Department's failure to implement the FAFSA Simplification Act. Following the hearing, Senator Collins and a bipartisan, bicameral group of 10 Committee leaders in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary Cardona urging the Department to prioritize the timely rollout of the 2025-2026 FAFSA form.

In January, Senator Collins joined a bicameral group in calling on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct an investigation into the Department of Education's failure to implement the 2024-2025 FAFSA program.

On August 1, Senator Collins joined her colleagues in introducing a resolution condemning the botched rollout by the Department of Education of the FAFSA Simplification Act.

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