A quick look back at the news from last week. Compiled by Penn Hill Group.

CONGRESS

The U.S. Senate is in recess until next Monday, January 8.

The U.S. House of Representatives is in recess until next Tuesday, January 9.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced that he will not be voting until February as he undergoes continued cancer treatment.

ADMINISTRATION

Starting Monday, January 8, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) will convene a negotiated rulemaking committee for the first of three sessions to develop regulations related to Cash Management, State Authorization, Distance Education, Return of Title IV Funds, Accreditation and Federal TRIO Programs.

On December 30, ED made publicly available the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2024-2025 award year. ED initially provided access to the FAFSA for small periods of time each day but has been expanding the number of hours that the form is available.

ED announced that it is withholding payments from Aidvantage, EdFinancial, and Nelnet after finding that those three Federal student loan servicer “failed to meet contractual obligations to send timely billing statements” to a combined 785,000 student loan borrowers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture published an interim final rule on the summer electronic benefits transfer for children program (Summer EBT) and non-congregate meals.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

Penn Hill Group provides a list of grant opportunities and summaries for select grants. Please visit our website for more information.