A potential remedy to some FAFSA woes is sitting in Congress. Could it pass?

USA TODAY

Zachary Schermele

February 14, 2024

Dueling plans for the future of American higher education are sitting in Congress right now, gathering dust.

One is a massive overhaul that Democrats say Republicans sprang on them at the start of the year. It would take a chainsaw to the federal student loan system, dramatically reducing the amount of money students can borrow to pay for school and slashing programs that help lower-income graduates make progress on their loans.

Read more: Rich colleges leave students with crushing debt. Republicans want to fine them.

Another slew of bills, a wish list for Democrats, would go the other way. The bills in their plan, a legislative package they call the “Roadmap to College Student Success,” would double federal grants to less affluent students while expanding access to certain types of student loans. They’d lower interest rates, too.

In this gridlocked Congress, neither blueprint has much of a prayer.

The Republican vision, a sprawling and controversial 224-page bill, passed out of the House’s education committee two weeks ago on a party-line vote. It could make it through the full House at some point, but it faces a grim future in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority.

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