File Once FAFSA Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4240 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to reduce the number of times certain applicants for financial assistance are required to file a FAFSA, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 6, 2019 Ms. UNDERWOOD (for herself, Ms. SCANLON, and Ms. SCHRIER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to reduce the number of times certain applicants for financial as- sistance are required to file a FAFSA, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘File Once FAFSA 4 Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:20 Sep 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4240.IH H4240 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 4240 IH SEC. 2. ONE-TIME FAFSA FILING. 1 Section 483(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 2 (20 U.S.C. 1090(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 3 following: 4 ‘‘(13) ONE-TIME FAFSA FILING.— 5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 6 other provision of this section and subject to 7 subparagraphs (B) and (C), an applicant who 8 submits a FAFSA for the first time during the 9 period required for the completion of the first 10 undergraduate baccalaureate course of study 11 being pursued by such applicant and is eligible 12 to receive a Federal Pell Grant for the award 13 year for which the applicant submitted such 14 FAFSA, for any succeeding award year— 15 ‘‘(i) for which the applicant does not 16 submit a FAFSA and for which the appli- 17 cant submits a certification form described 18 in subparagraph (D) that does not indicate 19 a change in the dependency status of such 20 applicant, such applicant— 21 ‘‘(I) shall not be required to sub- 22 mit a FAFSA to receive financial as- 23 sistance under this title; and 24 ‘‘(II) shall have an expected fam- 25 ily contribution for such year that is 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:20 Sep 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4240.IH H4240 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 4240 IH equal to the expected family contribu- 1 tion of the applicant determined for 2 the award year for which the appli- 3 cant submitted a FAFSA during such 4 period, except that an adjustment to 5 such expected family contribution may 6 be made under section 479A; 7 ‘‘(ii) for which the applicant submits a 8 certification form described in subpara- 9 graph (D) that indicates a change in the 10 dependency status of the applicant, such 11 applicant— 12 ‘‘(I) shall be required to submit a 13 FAFSA with respect to such award 14 year to receive financial assistance 15 under this title; and 16 ‘‘(II) shall have an expected fam- 17 ily contribution for such year that is 18 determined based on such FAFSA; 19 ‘‘(iii) for which the applicant submits 20 a FAFSA, such applicant— 21 ‘‘(I) shall have an expected fam- 22 ily contribution for such year that is 23 determined based on such FAFSA; 24 and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:20 Sep 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4240.IH H4240 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 4240 IH ‘‘(II) shall be required to submit 1 a FAFSA for any other award year 2 for which the applicant seeks financial 3 assistance under this title; and 4 ‘‘(iv) for which the applicant does not 5 submit a certification form described in 6 subparagraph (D), such applicant shall 7 submit a FAFSA for such succeeding 8 award year and any other award year for 9 which the applicant seeks financial assist- 10 ance under this title. 11 ‘‘(B) ADJUSTMENT OF EXPECTED FAMILY 12 CONTRIBUTION.—With respect to an applicant 13 described in subparagraph (A)(i) who receives 14 an adjustment under section 479A to the ex- 15 pected family contribution of the applicant for 16 an award year, for any succeeding award year 17 after the award year for which the adjustment 18 was made, subclause (II) of such subparagraph 19 shall be applied to such applicant by sub- 20 stituting ‘expected family contribution of the 21 applicant as most recently adjusted under sec- 22 tion 479A for such applicant’ for the ‘expected 23 family contribution of the applicant determined 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:20 Sep 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4240.IH H4240 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 4240 IH for the award year for which the applicant sub- 1 mitted a FAFSA during such period’. 2 ‘‘(C) RULE FOR CERTAIN STUDENTS.— 3 With respect to an applicant who submits a 4 FAFSA for award year 2020–2021 and enrolls 5 in an institution of higher education for such 6 year, subparagraph (A) shall be applied— 7 ‘‘(i) in the matter preceding clause (i), 8 by substituting ‘award year 2020–2021’ 9 for ‘the first time’; and 10 ‘‘(ii) in clause (i)(II), by substituting 11 ‘award year 2020–2021’ for ‘the award 12 year for which the applicant submitted a 13 FAFSA during such period’. 14 ‘‘(D) STUDENT CERTIFICATION FORM.— 15 The Secretary, in cooperation with representa- 16 tives of agencies and organizations involved in 17 student financial assistance, shall use behav- 18 ioral science insights to produce, distribute, and 19 process free of charge a short and simple con- 20 sumer-tested certification form that uses skip 21 logic to bypass fields that are inapplicable to an 22 applicant. Such form shall not require an appli- 23 cant to provide data that the Secretary may 24 otherwise obtain with respect to the applicant 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:20 Sep 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4240.IH H4240 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 4240 IH (such as age or active duty military status), and 1 may only contain the data elements required for 2 purposes of subparagraph (A)(i)— 3 ‘‘(i) to confirm whether the applicant 4 is— 5 ‘‘(I) a dependent student; 6 ‘‘(II) a single independent stu- 7 dent or a married independent stu- 8 dent without dependents (other than a 9 spouse); or 10 ‘‘(III) an independent student 11 with dependents other than a spouse; 12 ‘‘(ii) to allow the applicant to update 13 the contact information of such applicant 14 or the Federal School Code of the institu- 15 tion of higher education in which the appli- 16 cant is, or will be enrolled, for the award 17 year for which the applicant submits such 18 form; and 19 ‘‘(iii) to ask whether the applicant’s 20 need and eligibility for financial assistance 21 under this title has not changed substan- 22 tially since the most recent of the fol- 23 lowing: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:20 Sep 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4240.IH H4240 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 4240 IH ‘‘(I) The applicant submitted a 1 FAFSA. 2 ‘‘(II) The applicant received an 3 adjustment under section 479A to the 4 expected family contribution of the 5 applicant. 6 ‘‘(E) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 7 ‘‘(i) DEPENDENCY STATUS.—The 8 term ‘dependency status’ means the status 9 of an applicant as— 10 ‘‘(I) a dependent student; 11 ‘‘(II) a single independent stu- 12 dent or a married independent stu- 13 dent without dependents (other than a 14 spouse); or 15 ‘‘(III) an independent student 16 with dependents other than a spouse. 17 ‘‘(ii) SUCCEEDING AWARD YEAR.— 18 The term ‘succeeding award year’— 19 ‘‘(I) when used with respect to 20 an applicant who submits a FAFSA 21 for the first time for an award year 22 during the period required for the 23 completion of the first undergraduate 24 baccalaureate course of study being 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:20 Sep 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4240.IH H4240 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 4240 IH pursued by such applicant, means any 1 award year during such period that 2 follows the award year for which the 3 applicant submits such FAFSA; and 4 ‘‘(II) when used with respect to 5 an applicant described in subpara- 6 graph (C), means any award year 7 after award year 2019–2020 during 8 the period required for the completion 9 of the first undergraduate bacca- 10 laureate course of study being pur- 11 sued by such applicant.’’. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:20 Sep 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4240.IH H4240 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS