OKC Standard

U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) joined Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) in introducing a resolution to condemn the Biden-Harris administration’s rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2024-2025 school year. The resolution criticizes the problematic rollout, calls for the Department of Education (ED) to identify and fix any issues for this year, and requests leaders to testify before congressional committees regarding the rollout.

FAFSA has historically opened applications on October 1 of the year prior to the start of the academic school year. For the academic year 2024-2025, applications opened three months later in December. ED subsequently did not start sending FAFSA data to universities until March. Due to this delay, many students did not receive their financial aid awards until after May 1, 2024, a date by which many institutions require students to commit to attending for the fall semester. Senator Mullin expressed his concern about this issue earlier this year.

For the academic year 2025-2026, ED has already announced that applications will again be delayed until December.

“There is no excuse for these failures,” said Sen. Mullin. “It’s unacceptable for the Biden-Harris administration to expect students and their families to make this decision without knowing which schools the student can or cannot afford to attend. The administration failed to learn from its mistakes and students in Oklahoma and across America are once again left to suffer the consequences.”

“Students and parents must be able to make an informed decision about where they’re attending college before the decision deadline,” said Sen. Rounds. “A big piece of this decision is considering how much college will cost them and knowing how much aid they’ll get to help. It’s unacceptable that the Department of Education’s botched FAFSA rollout has hurt America’s students and institutions of higher education. My colleagues and I strongly condemn this massive failure and call on the Department of Education to take necessary steps to fix FAFSA for this next school year.”

Mullin and Rounds were joined on this resolution by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Cornyn (R-TX), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Steve Daines (R-MT), James Lankford (R-OK), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Joe Manchin (I-WV), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Jim Risch (R-ID), Tim Scott (R-SC), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Roger Wicker (R-MS).