Rep. Owens chairs hearing on “botched” FAFSA rollout

SALT LAKE CITY — A House subcommittee chaired by Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, R-UT on Tuesday morning focused on problems with last fall’s FAFSA rollout.

In 2020, the bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act was passed to help make financial aid easier to access. The new program cut the number of application questions from over 100 to less than 20. However, if students submitted wrong information, they had a hard time correcting it. This caused many students to qualify for less financial aid than they should have.

Additionally, many students put off registering for school because they didn’t know what their aid package would be.

Delays and glitches with the new program caused frustration for students, parents and schools.

“The website kept getting shut down and students couldn’t get in,” said Vice President of Student Access and Success, Jessica Oyler. She also said students can expect the same issues this fall.

Hearing on FAFSA rollout

Congressman Burgess Owens, chaired the hearing. In his opening remarks Burgess said in part:

“The Biden-Harris administration had plenty of time and what should have been a clear goal: to make the FAFSA process easier and more efficient. The idea was simple: reduce the number of questions, streamline the process, and make it easier for families to determine their financial aid eligibility. The law was set to take full effect in 2023, but here we are, late into 2024, and the situation is far from resolved.”

During the hearing the subcommittee questioned the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on their findings about the ongoing issues. 

FAFSA delayed 305 days—students left in the dark.

The Biden-Harris admin had a YEAR to fix it.

My questions to the @USGAO witnesses who investigated this failure: ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/BJfWujY5Ic

— Rep. Burgess Owens (@RepBurgessOwens) September 24, 2024

Burgess asked the GAO several questions regarding the roll out and its failure to meet timelines and expectations. Directors Melissa Emrey-Arras and Marisol Cruz Cain represented the GAO.

“Has the Federal Student Aid finalized a detailed plan for the upcoming year’s FAFSA to avoid a repeat of last year’s disaster?”

Cruz Cain admitted there was not a written detailed plan. 

“They’ve verbally given us promises that they are going to continue to do better testing and have better plans to address system defects. But we have not seen any documents that involve what the test plans would look like [or] if they plan on conducting any independent reviews,” said Cruz Cain. 

After today’s hearing, the GOA released a summary report titled, “Botched FAFSA Rollout Leaves Uncertainty for Students Seeking Financial Aid for College.” It details the issues found with the rollout. 

Related: Experts fear ‘catastrophic’ college declines due to botched FAFSA rollout