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

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHMITT. Madam President, like my colleagues before me, I rise to bring attention to an issue that is affecting high school students and their families all across the country, including in my home State of Missouri.

It is national college decision day, and millions of students who have worked hard are deciding where they will continue their education. Unfortunately, a lot of those students' experiences today will be marred by the Department of Education's complete inability to do the basics of their jobs.

There are major issues in the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid--the FAFSA application. Colleges, including Missouri State University, pushed back deadlines for financial aid, and students are left with more questions now than answers. Additionally, on March 22, the Department of Education announced that roughly 200,000 student financial aid records sent to schools included errors in the data.

The bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act eased the bureaucratic burden of students by streamlining the questionnaire from 108 questions down to just 38. For nearly every student in the country, especially first- generation college students, a simplified FAFSA experience would ease the college application experience.

Despite plenty of time and adequate funding, the Department of Education failed to properly implement the new FAFSA. Although the FAFSA Simplification Act passed in 2020, the form was not available for prospective students until December of 2023, delaying the financial aid process. Colleges and universities did not begin to receive student data from completed applications until the end of March of 2024, delaying the process even further.

My office sent a letter to Secretary Cardona demanding answers on behalf of Missourians impacted by this bureaucratic nightmare, and we still have not received any answers. In the meantime, my office has been working with counselors across the State to assist students and families as they navigate this fiasco.

The Department of Education has pushed unnecessary and legally dubious loan-bailout initiatives, while also failing to prioritize existing obligations with established student aid programs. Even more concerning, the Department has prioritized the applications of families with illegal aliens, devising workarounds and loopholes to allow these applications to be submitted.

Based on all accounts, working families depending on FAFSA determinations are in the back of the queue for the Department of Education. The Department of Education and Secretary Cardona should prioritize working families and fix this mess now.

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