Q: What went wrong with the updated federal financial aid application?

A: Congress passed bipartisan legislation in 2020 to simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for college-bound students and their families. Typically, more than 17 million families fill out FAFSA by Oct. 1, nearly a year before the next academic year and seven months before Decision Day on May 1, the deadline for students across the country to decide on the college they plan to attend. Schools use FAFSA calculations to determine financial aid packages for prospective students. Despite having three years to implement the new FAFSA application, the updated 2024-2025 version wasn’t released by the Biden administration until late January—three months late. And to make matters worse, the online application process experienced significant glitches that have fueled heartache and hardship for millions of families. In December, I put the Biden administration on notice to get on the stick and focus on fixing FAFSA, instead of abusing its executive power and devoting efforts to transfer student loan debt to the taxpayer. By all accounts, the U.S. Department of Education’s botched job unnecessarily put high school graduates and their families in a pickle. For months, I’ve tracked feedback from Iowans and kept in close touch with Iowa college admissions officers to ensure their concerns are heard at the Department of Education. Iowans are exasperated and many feel at their wits’ end. Instead of enjoying a special moment in their lives as they graduate from high school and look forward to their futures, the blundered rollout by the Biden administration has real consequences for many Iowa families. Here’s a bit of feedback I’m hearing from Iowans:

“As a single parent to three college kids, this is a major issue for my family. They are standing in the way of kids heading to college.” – A single parent from Altoona

“When we try to contact the Department of Education [about] FAFSA, there is no reply and an automatic hang up. We have been doing this since January. This is beyond frustration. Does the Department of Education even know that their system is messed up?”  -- A family from Bettendorf

“As a student whose family owns a family farm, as well as a small business, the FAFSA Simplification Act will significantly affect my ability to receive the necessary financial aid as I continue college.” – Student from Vinton

Q: What are you doing to help families who are waiting for answers?

A: For starters, I’m working to help ensure farm families and family-owned businesses aren’t penalized by changes to FAFSA that require applicants to list non-liquid assets. On behalf of tens of thousands of Iowa families, I’ve worked to educate federal bureaucrats that farmland and equipment is not like cash in a savings account. For example, farm families can’t sell off their combine and use the cash to pay for college without jeopardizing their livelihoods. In Rural America, that’s called cash-poor, asset-rich. I’ve been in contact with the Education Department to make sure for-profit “investment farms” aren’t lumped in with farming operations on which a family lives and works. In February as deadlines drew near, I teamed up with Sen. Joni Ernst to provide answers and clarity for Iowa families. And still, the FAFSA delays put too many families in limbo. On May 2, we convened a roundtable discussion on Capitol Hill with leadership of the Office of Federal Student Aid to discuss the problems many families are facing and fix these issues that are creating obstacles for students to attend college in the fall.We need to make sure this is straightened out so it doesn’t happen again. A number of schools in Iowa have extended Decision Day to accommodate the FAFSA fiasco.  I’ll continue pressing the Biden administration to stop ratcheting up the national debt by unloading student debt onto the taxpayer. Through executive orders, President Biden has already canceled $620 billion in student debt and is on track to cancel up to $1.4 trillion, digging a bigger hole in the budget and forcing taxpayers to pay for someone else’s debt. Enough is enough. Let’s focus on bringing down the cost of tuition and educating student borrowers about their college aid options before they take out loans.