CONGRESS

The House and Senate are not scheduled to conduct legislative business until after the November election with both chambers returning on November 12.

House Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee Chair Aaron Bean (R-FL) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, opposing proposed changes to the Department of Education’s (ED’s) data collection on student participation in Career and Technical Education (CTE), the use of Perkins V funds and State accountability measures under Federal law.

ADMINISTRATION

ED shared that its first phase of testing for the 2025-2026 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form has commenced with 650 students successfully submitted applications, 586 institutions receiving 6,266 Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) generated by those applications, and many student corrections being successfully completed. ED has now begun its second phase of testing for the 2025-2026 FAFSA form, known as Beta 2.

ED announced that it will provide $4.5 billion in additional public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) for more than 60,000 borrowers.

ED is temporarily pausing the assignment of new Federal student loan borrower accounts to the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) as a result of repayment plan processing failures and backlogs by the company.