Theres no room for the public, but this is all streaming and there will be an unedited version that anyone can watch later. Our witnesses are participating by Video Conference today and some senators are as well. I would like to Say Something about mass. The office of attending position that he says since were six feet apart, we dont need to wear masks, although some may. I have one and i wear it outside because as dr. Redfield reminded us yesterday, its extremely important tool for stopping the spread of covid. Im grateful to the rules committee. Sergeant arms, the capitol lice and chun check and Evan Griffith and the people with all their hard work in helping us keep safe and helping us do these conferences by video which everyone has become pretty expert. Senator murray and i will have an opening statement. Well turn to our witness who we thank for being with us today. Each witness if you would summarize your remarks in five minutes, that would leave more time for questions and answers. Each senator will have five minutes and well try to keep the questions and answers for each senator at five minutes so everyone can have a chance to participate. I would like to begin today by thanking senator murray. She offered some kind words for me at our hearing on tuesday. Let me Say Something about her. Four years ago, she and i received the National Education associations friend of education award. It was the first time in 30 years the n. E. A. Had awarded an award to a republican. But it was the second time in four years that they awarded it to senator murray. So we would seem like an unlikely pair. But theres a little secret to our relationship. Senator murray was a preschool teacher. And my mother was had a kindergarten in our backyard where she had 25, three and 4yearolds in the morning and 23, 5yearolds in the backyard for 30 years. And i was there for almost every year until i was six. So senator murray and i found a lot of Common Ground in what you learn in preschool, which was the childhood lesson of play well together. An indispenlsable part of our success has by my staff director as well as other members of the murray staff and the alexander staff who learned to work well together and made it easier for us to succeed. Our staff affectionately calls them the murrays. The laws that we passed over the past six years ive been the chairman and shes been the Ranking Member would havent happened 2002 senator murray with the everyss Student Succeeds act. President obama called that a christmas miracle. Over the 21st century cures act, senator mcconnell called that, the most important law of the entire kong speeding up lifesaving cures for diseases from alzheimers to the flu and the Opioid Crisis act of 2019 and the future act of last year when. En we began the process of implemented the dreaded fafsa and funding black colleges and there have been many more including the perkins law and other important laws. Senator murray has been extraordinarily effective partly because shes a member of the democratic leadership and she commands Great Respect on her side of the aisle. But she also knows how to create an environment in which bills can become law which requires bipartisan action. For example, when she and i first began to work on fixing no child left behind, she said that what we should do is write the bill together. Well, that hadnt been my plan. But i took her advice. Turned out to be good advice. And we got a result that not many people thought we would get. That bill had many complicated and contentious issues. There were crocodiles at every part of the pond. But senator murray helped create find creative ways to conquer those challenges and proceed to the finish. One of the most special times for me in my 18 years in the senate was on april 16, 2015, when we called the role on the every student succeed act. And a committee this committee of so many different points of view every single senator voted yes. To recommend that bill to the senate. That type of bipartisan never would have happened without patty murray. Weve had some disappointments. We certainly had some differences of opinion. But senator murray has always been willing to sit down and try to find a path forward even on the most contentious issues. I often say its hard to get to the United States senate. Its hard to stay here. And while youre here you might as well try to accomplish omething good for the country. Americans are fortunate that there have been new laws to tackle new crisis, spur new cures for diseases to make it easier to afford college and to help 150 million children in americas public schools. I thank her for her friendship, partnership and leaderships on some of the most important issues of our time. Lets turn our attention to one of those issues. And it is this 20 Million Students and their families are in the middle of what has to be the strangest first semester of college in at least a century. Almost everything has changed for students except one thing. Students still have to answer 108 questions on the dreaded fafsa forms, the federal aid application for pell grants and Student Loans to help go to college. For years now, ive carried around the fafsa as a prop to make the case for simplifying it but its no joke especially this year. Many students are questioning their investment in a College Education at a time when many classes are only offering online courses. Many of low income students who would benefit most economically longterm are putting it off all together. There was already an 8 drop in the number of black students compared to last summers enrollment according to the National Clearinghouse research center. The president of Southwest Tennessee Community College in memphis a mostly minority Community College told me three ars ago that he loses 1500 students a semester because of the complexity of filling out the fafsa. Imagine how much less unmotivated anybody else to fill out this fafsa. This is difficult for students who are homeless, in foster care who are living with parents. Its hard for them to complete it. Momentless students have to prove theyre homeless. Foster students may not have all the information and students g with grabbed parents grandparents. This is exactly the kind of economy in which a College Education proves its value. Its not that senator murray and i and others are not trying to help fix the fafsa. When four of todays witnesses appear before this committee almost seven years ago, they universally agree that the fafsa was an obstacle to students attending college. They said we could award pell grants using two simple variables. Family size and income. Senator bennett and i then had the same reaction. Well, if theres that much agreement on how to make it easier for 20 million families to a ply for federal aid, why dont we just do it . So the senator and i turned the lengthy fafsa into a post guard. The result was the fast act. Senator murray and i then worked with the Obama Administration to allow students to fill out the fafsa using their Tax Information from two years before they enroll in college. Instead of one. So they could file in the fall rather than having to wait until spring. The Trump Administration has created an app so students and families can file the fafsa on their cell phones or tablets. The future act which senator murray and sponsored which became law last year reduced the fafsa by up to 22 questions and eliminated the bureaucratic nightmare created by requiring students to give the federal government the same information twice and then to try to catch them in making a mistake. Stopping the federal government from asking for your Tax Information twice once for the i. R. S. And once for the Education Department also helps prevent most applicants from being selected by the department of education for Income Verification caused by a mistakes, which many parents and counselors have told me is a bigger burden than filling out 1 its 1 08 questions in the first place some of today weve got a piece of legislation that would finish the job. It has brought bipartisan support. Its based on recommendations that four of todays witnesses gave us nearly seven years ago at a hearing before this committee. Heres what i mean when i say its time to finish the fafsa. The Bipartisan Legislation senator jones and i have proposed will have reduced the total questions from 108 to no more than 33. So let me give you an example of the difference if i can hold it up. This is the 108 questions. This is the 33 questionform that would make the difference if we could enact it this year. Its the first thing it would do. Second, it would end the department of educations lengthy Financial Data verification by removing unnecessary financial questions and instead using only the Financial Data that will come directly from the i. R. S. Starting in 2023, 2024 school year. A change that kong made in the future act, which passed last year, which i just mentioned. Three, it will continue to collect states and colleges with the information they need to determine state and institutional aid. The first legislation that senator bennett and i worked on caused some problem first states and we worked with states and counslors to address those problems. Four, it would create a simple pell Grant Eligibility formula so that middle an High School Students an anyone interested in applying for aid would know how much pell grant money they have to go to college. Five, it does something else. Something that senator murray has been working on for 20 years that makes it easier for students who are homeless. Students in the foster system, or students who are not in touch with their parents. Our bill allows these students to apply for aid as independent students making the application process for them much simpler. As a result of these changes, kong would immediately enable more students to receive bell grants and many more to receive the maximum pell grant. In additional 420,000 students would qualify for pell grants this year if this bill passed according to the congressional budget office. Six Million Students would qualify to receive the maximum pell grant each year. The formula would account for the greatest needs of these families. In addition to senator murray, much of this work has been done by senator bennett, senator jones as a member of this committee and others who have helped with the work include senator booker, senator burr of this committee, senator collins of this committee, senator king nd foreman senator issakson. During these last several years, we worked carefully with various organizations to make sure our proposals dont cause any expected problems. And as a result, we have the support of the National Association for student aid centers, the National CollegeAttainment Network, the executive officers organizations schoolhouse connections, each of the Higher Educational compact. In conclusion, after nearly seven years of work on these issues, it all boils down to this. It makes no sense to make it this complicated to apply for federal aid for college. It makes no sense to discourage the very students kong wants to encourage to attend college and benefit from federal Financial Aid. In tennessee, former governor bill haslem created the tennessee promise and tennessee connect programs to provide two years of free Community College to any tennessean without a degree. All they have to do is fill out the fafsa. Yet the governor told me that the fafsa is the single biggest barrier to help more tennesseans take advantage of the portunity for two free years to finish education. The time is right now of students facing so much uncertainty, students in foster care and students living with grandparents. I hope we can pass bipartisan support to do so. Ly recognize senator murray for her opening statement. Senator murray first of all, let me say thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today. And mr. Chairman, thank you for your very kind opening remarks about me. I appreciate it so much. And if im not mistaken this is your last scheduled education hearing to help chairman. Thank you for all your contributions to Higher Education. As i said earlier this week as a former governor, president of the university of tennessee, secretary of education, this committee, everyone has benefited from your expertise and your experience. And i will say what i said again tuesday. We all owe you a debt of gratitude and really, really appreciate all your work. You know, throughout your time together on how weve been able to pass the future act to permanently fund our nation hbcu, we expanded our Education Program and restore the yearround pell grant just to name a few in just in Higher Education. So again, thank you so much for all of your contribution. And again, today, we are discussing an issue near and dear to your heart where you already have an impressive a acy and that is fafs simplification. Im proud to introduce the new fafsa. If our work in 2015 with the Obama Administration to allow students to fill out the fafsa earlier to our work last year in our future act to help students securely use the Tax Information already on file with the scheduled government. This is an issue where we have repeatedly been able to find Common Ground and get things done. And mr. Chairman, your leadership on this issue has made the fafsa much easier to navigate. But there is more work to be done. The ongoing pandemic is also having a profound impact Economic Impact on families across the country. And we are already seeing students are facing unprecedented struggles struggles when it comes to paying for college. The fafsa must be a tool that expands access to Higher Education not a barrier that prevents qualified students from getting the Financial Aid they need to go to college. And that means we need to build on the valuable work thats been done to make fafsa easier to navigate by making sure students experiencing homelessness, foster care or student who is have low income can successfully get access to the pell grants available to them. Because right now, its students who need the help the most who are facing the biggest burden in getting Financial Aid. Those students dont have the resources to navigate the college Financial Aid process and the struggle without access to College Counselors or other support and many times without dependable internet or access to a computer. Instead of forcing them to jump through unnecessary hoops, we need to do everything we can to make their lives easier like making the verification process where students have to come Firm Information on the fafsa for their school less of a burden especially with families with low income. Determining pell grants based on federal Poverty Level so more students and families could easily know the am of help they will receive and fully implementing the future act as soon as possible. And we cant stop there, by the way. We also need to get serious about connecting these students to more than just pell grants. We must work to insure that students dont miss on federal support programs they may be eligible for that could help them afford food and housing and childcare. Its the beginning of the process to make easier for students and families. Im glad to work with you to get this right. But while simplifying fafsa is important, i dont have to tell you that covid is top of mind for students and educators. We just kicked off an Unprecedented School year. There have been over 88,000 cases of coronavirus on College Campuses and 60 deaths. And these outbreaks have led many colleges to abruptly switch to remote classes and for students to leave campus with little warning. Im hearing truly heartbreaking stories from College Students back in my home state of washington about the turmoil they are experiencing. So the Senate Also Needs to get to work negotiating a covid relief package to make sure colleges can deliver a quality education for their students and implement Public Health protocol and provide emergency Financial Aid to student who are struggling to afford food, housing and childcare and technology that they now need to have during this crisis. So i want you to know i want you to keep pushing to start bipartisan negotiations on this relief package. But for now, i want to thank our witnesses for being here and thanks again to chairman alexander. I know we dont always agree. But what i do know is that even when we disagree, weve always been able to listen to each other. And quite often