Congress on Wednesday put forth a short-term continuing resolution (CR) to extend current funding deadlines and avert a partial government shutdown this weekend.
Under the new deal, funding for the departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Affairs will run through March 8. The rest of the government, including funding for the departments of Education and Labor, will be funded through March 22. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the CR before the week’s end.
Leadership has indicated that this will be the last temporary extension and simultaneously announced a bipartisan agreement on six funding bills for fiscal year 2024, but it doesn’t include a deal yet for a Labor-HHS-Education bill.
More FAFSA news
The CR includes new student aid provisions related to the implementation of the FAFSA Simplification Act and funding for the Pell Grant program. Earlier this week, the Department of Education (ED) announced a change to its interpretation of the FAFSA Simplification Act as it relates to the measure to allow for a negative Student Aid Index (SAI; the measure replacing the “Expected Family Contribution”) for certain students. Up until this week, the department had applied an SAI floor of -$1,500 for both independent and dependent students. After reviewing the statute, ED announced that the -$1,500 floor only applied to independent students and that applying any floor to dependent students would be “inconsistent with the letter of the law.”
In response, Congressional leaders included a measure that rescinds the department’s announcement. The provision restores a floor of -$1,500 for dependent students for the 2024-25 award year so as to not cause any additional delays to the processing of financial aid information, and a $0 floor for the 2025-26 award year and each year moving forward.
Finally, the CR includes an additional $7.7 billion in mandatory funding to shore up the Pell Grant program. This comes amid concerns that the new SAI and increased aid eligibility will accelerate a shortfall of the Pell Grant Reserve Fund.
