Committee Republicans Vote to Undermine FAFSA and Jeopardize Retirees’ Savings
WASHINGTON – Today, the Committee on Education and the Workforce Republicans passed bills to: (1) undermine the Department of Education’s ability to roll out an accurate the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and (2) repeal the Biden-Harris’ Administration’s commonsense Retirement Security Rule.
“Once again, we’re missing an opportunity to actually advance meaningful solutions that will uplift students, workers, and their families,” said Ranking Member Scott.
H.R. 8932 would assign an accelerated October 1 deadline to roll out FAFSA. The Department of Education has faced technical challenges with FAFSA this year resulting in poor implementation and concerning FAFSA completion rates. However, assigning an arbitrary deadline, without providing additional resources or technical support, would set the Department up for failure.
“I want FAFSA to work. We all want FAFSA to work, and I want students to get the aid they’re entitled to in a timely manner. What we don’t want is for the Department to rush to meet arbitrary deadlines and push out a FAFSA form that – once again – has the same technical problems that students experienced this year when they could get it straight a couple of days after the deadline and release a form that actually works,” said Scott. “This legislation would do nothing to actually fix FAFSA or help students but would set the Department up for failure just to potentially score some political points. I guess we could complain on October 1st, but that doesn’t do any good.”
H.J. Res. 142 would repeal the Biden-Harris Administration’s Retirement Security Rule and jeopardize the finances of retiring workers and their families. The Retirement Security rule is a narrow, commonsense regulation to prevent retirees from receiving bad financial advice from unscrupulous advisors.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s Retirement Security Rule … help ensure workers, retirees, and retirement plan sponsors receive advice that’s in their best interests. I’m surprised that the concept is apparently controversial,” said Scott. “According to Morningstar, retirement plan participants would save over $55 billion in the first ten years after implementation and over $130 billion in the ten years after that, just by getting information that’s in their best interest, not in the best interest of the financial advisors.”
The Committee also passed a handful of bills related to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Standard Occupational Classification System.
H.R. 2941, H.R. 6319, and H.R. 2574 suggest changes in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Standard Occupational Classification System to highlight groups of workers who are too often underpaid, under-protected, and underappreciated in today’s economy: Direct Support Professionals, 911 operators, and firefighters. However, more action is needed to improve the livelihoods of these workers.
To read Ranking Member Scott’s full opening statement, click here.
To read amendments and letters of opposition to H.R. 8932, H.R. H.R. 2941, H.R. 6319, H.R. 2574, and H.J. Res. 142, click here.
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