Good morning to everyone. The committee on Health Education labor and pensions will please come to order. First, a few administrative matters. Weve gotten advice from the sergeant at arms health and human services, centers for disease control, individuals in the hearing room will be at least six feet apart. Theres no room for the public, therefore, but this is all streaming and there will be an unedited version of it that anyone can watch later. Our witnesses are participating by videoconference today and some senators are as well. Id like to Say Something about masks. Since were six feet apart we dont need to wear masks, although some may. Thats why my mask is off, although i have one and i wear it outside because as we were reminded yesterday its extremely important tool for stopping the spread of covid. Im grateful to the rules committee, sergeant of arms, the press gallery, the architect of the capitol, the Capitol Police and our staff, people, all their hard work in helping to keep us safe and to helping us do these conferences by video of which everyone seems to have become pretty expert. Senator murray and i will have an opening statement. Well then turn to our witnesses who we thank for being with us today. Each witness will have, if you would summarize your remarks in five minutes, that would leave more time for questions and answers. Each senator will have five minutes. Well try to keep the questions and answers for each senator at five minutes so everyone can have a chance to participate. Id like to begin today by thanking senator murray. She offered kind words for me at our hearing on tuesday. Let me Say Something about her. Foyer years ago she and i received the National Education associations friend of education award. It was the first time in 30 years they had awarded that award to a republican, but it was the second time in four years that they had award it had to senator murray. We would seem like an unlikely pair. Senator murray was a preschoolteacher and my mother had a kindergarten in our backyard where she had 25 3 and 4yearolds. And i was there for almost every year until i was 6. 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 indispensable part of our success has been staff director evan shotts and my staff director as well as murray staff and the alexander staff who have also learned to work well together and made it easier for us to succeed. Our staff affectionately calls them the murrays. The laws we passed in this committee over the past six years when ive been chairman and shes been the Ranking Member wouldnt have happened without senator murray whose leadership and effectiveness help yield, for example, the every Student Succeeds act. President obama called that a christmas miracle. It affects 100,000 Public Schools and 50 million children. Or the 21st century cures act. Senator mcconnell called that, which passed in 2016, the most important law of the entire congress. Speeding up lifesaving cures for diseases from alzheimers to cancel to flu. Its been helpful in driving recertificate. For covid19. And then the opioid response crisis act of 2018 and the future act of last year when we began the process of simplifying the dreaded fafsa by law and permanently funded historically black colleges, a goal for a long time. 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 the 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 helped find creative ways to conquer those challenges and proceed to the finish. One of the most special times for me in the senate was on april 16, 2015, when we called the roll 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 support never would have happened without patty murray. Weve had some disappointments. Weve certainly had some differences of opinion. But senator murrays 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 something good for the country. Senator murray is that kind of senator, the kind thats here to get something done, and americans are fortunate the result has been new laws to tackle the opioid crisis, spur new cures for diseases to make it easier to attend and afford college, and to help 50 million children and 100,000 Public Schools. I thank her for her friendship, for her partnership and her leadership on some of the most important issues of our time. And now lets turn our attention to one of those important 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 form. 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 lowincome students who would benefit most economically from college long term are putting it off altogether. There was already an 8 drop in the number of black undergraduate students enrolled in summer sessions compared with last summers enrollment according to the National StudentClearing House recertificate center. The president of southwest Tennessee College in memphis, a mostly Minority Community college, told me a few years ago that he loses 1,500 students a semester because of the complexity of filling out the fafsa. Imagine how much less motivated anyone is to fill out those 108 fafsa questions this year. This is a form that is especially difficult for students who are homeless, who are in foster care, who are living with grandparents. Its hard for them to complete it. Homeless students have to prove theyre homeless. Foster care students may not have access to all the information required to complete the fafsa and students living with their grandparents often are still dependents on their parents and obtaining information from their parents may be difficult. These are the very students federal aid is meant to help and its exactly the kind of economy in which a College Education proves its have you. Its not that senator murray and i and others havent been trying to help fix the fafsa. When four of todays witnesses appeared before this committee almost seven years ago they universally agreed the fafsa was an obstacle to students attending college. They said we could award pell grants using just two simple variables family size and income. Senator bennett and i had the same reaction. Well, if theres that much agreement on how to make it easier for 20 million families to apply for federal aid, why dont we just do it . So senator bennett and i set out to turn the lengthy fafsa into a post card. The result was the fact 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 i 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 irs and once for the Education Department also helps prevent most applicants from being selected by the department of education for Income Verification caused by mistakes which many parents and counselors have told me is a bigger burden than filling out the 108 questions in the first place. So today we have a piece of legislation that would finish the job. It has broad bipartisan support, based on recommendations that four of todays witnesses gave us nearly seven years ago at a hearing before this committee. Here is what i mean when i say its time to finish the faf si. The Bipartisan Legislation proposed would reduce the total questions on the fafsa from 108 to no more than 33. Let me give you an example of the difference. This is 108 questions. This is the 33 question form that would make the difference if we could enact it this year. Thats the first thing it would do. Second, it would end the department of educations lengthy Financial Data verification process by removing unnecessary financial questions and instead using only the Financial Data that will come directly from the irs starting in 202324 school year. A change congress made in the future act which passed last year and which i just mentioned. It will continue to collect and provide states and colleges the information they need to determine state and institutional aid. The first legislation senator bennett and i worked on caused some problems for states and we worked with states and counselors to address those problems. Four, it would create a simple pell Grant Eligibility formula so that middle and High School Students and 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 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. An additional 420,000 students would qualify for pell grants each year if this bill passed. 1. 6 million would qualify to receive the maximum pell grant. 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, a member of this committee, and others who have helped with the work including senator booker senator burr, senator collins, senator king and former senator isaacson. During the last several years weve worked with various organizations to make sure our proposals dont cause any unexpected problems and as a result we have the support of the National Association for student aid administrators, the National College attainment network, the state Higher Education executive officers organization, National Association of grant aid programs, each of the regional Higher Education compacts. It makes no sense to make it this complicated to apply for federal aid for college. In tennessee former governor bill haslem created the tennessee promise and tennessee reconnect 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 governor haslem told me the fafsa is the single biggest barrier to helping more tennesseeans take advantage of the opportunity for two free years of Higher Education. The right time to finish the job is now. They are under pressure, facing uncertain, homeless students, students in foster care and those living with grandparents. I hope we can pass Bipartisan Legislation. I will recognize senator murray for her opening statement. Mr. Chairman, first of all, 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 as health chairman, so i will say today thank you for all your contributions to Higher Education. As i said earlier this week as a former governor, president of tennessee, this committee and our entire country, everyone has really benefited from your expertise and your experience. I will say what i said again tuesday. We all owe you a debt of gratitude and really appreciate all your work. Throughout our time together on health weve been able to permanently fund our hbcus, we updated our career and Technical Education programs and worked together with senator blunt to restore the pell grant just to name a few and just in Higher Education. Again, thank you for all of your contributions and of course today we are discussing an issue near and dear to your heart where you already have an impressive legacy and that is fafsas simplification. Im proud of the steps we have taken to improve the fafsa for students across the country from our work in 2015 with the Obama Administration to allow students to fill out the fafsa earlier and with more accurate Financial Information to our work last year on the future act which will streamline to help securely use the Tax Information already on file with the federal government. This is an issue we have repeatedly been able to find Common Ground and get things done. Mr. Chairman, your leadership on this issue has already made the fafsa much easier to navigate. Of course we both agree there is more work to be done. The ongoing pandemic is having a profound Economic Impact on families across the country and we are already seeing students are facing unprecedented struggles when it comes to paying for college. The fafsa must be a tool that expands excess not a barrier. And that means we node to build on the valuable work being done to make fafsa easier to navigate by making sure students experiencing homelessness, students in foster care and students whose families have low incomes can successfully get access to the pell grants available to them. Right now its students who need our help the most facing the biggest burden in getting Financial Aid. They dont often have the resources to navigate the College Financial aid process and they 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 confirm information for their schools less of a burden especially for families with low incomes. Determining pell grants based on federal Poverty Level so more students and families can know the amount of help they will receive and fully implementing the future act as soon as possible. And we cant stop there, by the way. We need to get serious about connecting these students to more than just pell grants. We need to make sure they dont miss out on state and federal support programs they may be eligible for that could help them afford food and housing and child care. The fafsa is just the beginning of the Financial Aid process we need to make easier for students and families. So im glad to keep working with you, mr. Chairman, to get this right but while simplifying fafsa is important i dont have to tell anyone here that the covid crisis is top of mind for students and families and educators. We just kicked off an Unprecedented School year. There have already been over 88,000 cases on College Campuses and 60 deaths and these outbreaks have led many colleges to abruptly switch to remote classes and force 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 needs to get to work negotiating a covid relief package to make sure colleges can deliver a quality education for their students and impleme