- Byrd Bath hits key reconciliation provisions, including Workforce Pell
- House Committee advances new accreditation bills
- 2026-27 FAFSA to go live on October 1
Byrd Bath hits key reconciliation provisions, including Workforce Pell
Late Wednesday night, Senate Democrats on the Budget Committee announced that the Senate parliamentarian had ruled that a series of higher education provisions in the Senate’s budget reconciliation text did not comply with the chamber’s budget reconciliation rules. Unfortunately for community colleges, the provision creating workforce Pell Grants was included in that list.
To be eligible to advance under budget reconciliation in the Senate – and therefore requiring only a simple majority rather than a 60-vote threshold – all provisions must pass the “Byrd Rule.” This rule requires that provisions are designed principally to save (or spend) money, rather than making policy. This determination is made by the non-partisan Senate parliamentarian. If a provision is found to violate the Byrd Rule, it can either be reworked to better satisfy reconciliation rules, sponsors can attempt to overcome a 60-vote threshold to keep the provision in the bill, or, most likely, the provision gets dropped from the package altogether. AACC’s Jim Hermes has more on these potential paths in the Community College Daily.
Along with workforce Pell, the parliamentary found that the sweeping changes to repayment plans could not be applied to borrowers currently in repayment. This is a major blow to Republicans in both the House and Senate who were relying on these changes to generate significant savings. Provisions extending student aid eligibility to certain immigrants from Cuba and a tweak to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program were also deemed to be violations. Additional regulatory relief provisions are still under review.
House Committee advances new accreditation bills
On Wednesday, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved accreditation legislation designed to codify President Trump’s recent executive order. As covered by AACC’s David Baime in the Community College Daily, the Accreditation Choice and Innovation Act was introduced by Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida). The bill would overhaul existing federal regulations around accreditation procedures, in some cases to reduce burden, but in others to put new federal requirements on oversight of institutions. For example, the bill would make it easier for institutions to change accreditors, a currently lengthy and tedious process for colleges in states that have mandated such a change. Other provisions of the bill, however, would require accreditors to adopt new and specific student achievement outcomes, including monitoring the median price of a program versus the “value-added earnings.” In keeping with the President’s priorities in this area, the bill would also facilitate the addition of new state and industry entities as accreditors.
The committee also approved the Accreditation for College Excellence Act, which would prohibit accreditors from requiring diversity statements or other DEI standards for institutions. This again seeks to codify the existing executive order from President Trump.
2026-27 FAFSA to go live on October 1
On Monday, the Department of Education (ED) announced that the agency is on track to open the 2026-27 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by the October 1. For the past two years, ED has missed the regular October 1 deadline, only fully releasing the 2024-25 FAFSA in January and the 2025-26 FAFSA in late November. These delays were due to challenges associated with implementing the FAFSA Simplification Act and new needs analysis. Last year, President Biden signed the FAFSA Deadline Act, a bipartisan measure that newly requires the Department to release the form by October 1.
Following a successful beta-testing period for the 2025-26 FAFSA this year, the Department will begin undergoing another round of beta-testing beginning on August 4.
As part of this announcement, the Department shared that they will be implementing a new real-time identity verification system for StudentAid.gov users with a Social Security number. In previous cycles, users had to wait one to three days for identity verification, delaying their time to form completion and submission. ED is also implementing a simplified contributor invitation process that will send the contributor an email with a unique, non-case sensitive code. In previous cycles, the student was required to have personally identifiable information to invite a contributor.