First a few administrative matters. We have gotten advice from the sergeant at arms, the health and Human Services centers for disease control, individuals in the hearing room will he at least 6 feet apart. There is no room for the public and therefore but this is all streaming and therell be an unedited version of it that anyone can watch later. Witnesses are participating by videoconference today and some senators are as well. I like to Say Something about mask. The office of attending physician has said since we are 6 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 dr. Redfield reminded us yesterday its extremely important tool for stopping the spread of covid. Im grateful to the rules committee, sergeant at arms the press gallery and the Capitol Police and chung check in the Evan Griffith r. Staff, all their hard work in helping to keep us safe in helping us do these conferences by video with which everyone sings to have become expert. Senator murray and i will have an Opening Statement and we will then turn to our witnesses who we thank for being with us today. Each witness will have if you would summarize your remarks to five minutes that would leave more time for questions and answers. Each senator will have five minutes. Well try to keep the questions and answer for each senator at five minutes so everyone can have a chance to participate. I would like to begin today by thanking senator varney. 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 they had awarded back to her republican but it was the second time in four years that they awarded it to senator murray so we would seem like an unlikely patron but theres a secret to our relationship could senator murray was a preschool teacher and my mother had it kindergarten in our backyard where she had 25, three and 4yearolds in the morning and 25, five girls in the afternoon for 30 years. I was there almost every year until i was six. Senator murray and i have found a lot of Common Ground in what you learned in preschool which was the childhood lesson of play well together. An indispensable part of our success has been staff director evan schatz and david cleary my staff director as well as other members of the party staff who of also learned to work well together and made it easier for us to succeed. Our staff calls them the murrays. The laws that we have passed in this committee over the past six years while ive been chairman and she has been the Ranking Member would have happened without senator murray whose leadership and effectiveness help the every students succeed at. That put president obama call that a christmas miracle. It affects 100,000 Public Schools and 50 million children. More than 21st century cares 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 and cancer to the flu and helpful and driving research for covid19 and then theres 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 terminally funded historically black colleges. They are 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 sample 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. That hadnt been my plan but i took are advised and it turned out to be good advice. We got results that not many people thought we would get. That l. Has many complicated and contentious issues. There were crocodiles that 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 my 18 years in the senate was on april 16 of 2015 we may call the roll and every students succeed act in the committee, this committee of so many different points of view, every single senator voted yes to recommend that bill. That type of partisan support never would have happened without having murray. We have had some disappointments and we certainly had their fences 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 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 that get something done and americans are fortunate that the result has been to laws to tackle the Opioid Crisis cures for diseases to make it easy to that attend at college and helped 50 million children in 100,000 Public School so i thank her for her friendship, for her partnership under leadership of some of the most important issues of our time. 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 and 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 i have 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 on line courses. Many lowincome students who benefit most economically or putting it off altogether. There was only an 8 drop in students are enrolled in summer sessions compared to last summers enrollment compared to the Student Clearinghouse Research Center for the president of Southwest Tennessee Community College of memphis a mostly minority Community College told me a few years ago that he was he loses 1500 students a semester because of the complexity of filling out the fafsa. Imagine how much less motivated anyone is to fill out those 100 made fafsa questions this year. This is a form that is especially difficult for students who are homeless, who are in foster care and living with grandparents. Its hard for them to complete. Homeless students have to prove they are homeless for a 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 dependent on their parents in obtaining information from their parents may be difficult. These are the very students that federal it is meant to help in exactly the kind of economy which a College Education proves its value. Senator murray and nine others have been trying to help fix the fafsa. For todays witnesses appearing before this committee almost seven years ago they universally agreed that the fafsa was an obstacle to students attending college or they said we could award pell grants using just two simple variables, family size and income. Senator bennett had the same reaction. If theres that much agree mona how to make it easier for 20 million families to apply for federal aid then why dont we just do it. Senator bennett and i set out to turn the lengthy fafsa into a postcard. The result was the fafsa. Senator murray and i 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 a nap so students and families can file the fafsa on their cell phones or tablets for the future act which senator murray and i sponsored which became law last year reduced the fafsa by a 222 questions and eliminated 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 of 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. Today with a piece of legislation that would finish the job. Has broad bipartisan support based on recommendations that four of todays witnesses gave us nearly seven years ago appearing before this committee. Heres what i mean when i say it are the Bipartisan Legislation senator johnson i propose would reduce the total questions on the fafsa from 108, two more there no more than 33. Let the given example of the difference if i can hold it up. This is the 108 questions and this is the 33 questions that would make the difference if we could enact it this year. Thats the first thing he would do. The second, it would end the department of educations lengthy Financial Data verification process by removing unnecessary finance of questions and instead using only the Financial Data that will come directly from the irs starting in 2023 and 24 school year a change that congress made in the future act which passed last year and which i just mentioned. They will continue to collect and provide states and colleges with the information they need to determine state and institutionally. The first legislation that senator bennett and i worked on cause some problems for states and we have worked with states and counselors to address those problems. For, would create a simple pell Grant Eligibility form 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. It does something else. Something that senator murray has been working on for 20 years. 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 the students to apply for aid as independent students, making the application process for them much simpler. As a result of these changes congress would immediately enable more students to receive pell grants and many more to receive the maximum pell grant. An additional 420,000 students would qualify for pell grants each year if this bill passed according to the Congressional Budget Office. An additional 1. 6 Million Students would qualify to receive the maximum pell grant each year. Students from singleparent families would benefit more from pell grants because the formula would account for the greatest needs of these families. In addition to senator murray, much of his work has been done by senator bennett, senator jones, a member of this committee and others who have worked including senator booker, senator burr of this committee senator collins of this committee, senator king and former senator isakson. During these last several years we have worked carefully with various organizations to make sure our proposals dont cause any unexpected problems and as result we have the support of the National Association for student aid administrators, the National CollegePayment Network the state Higher Education executive Officers Organization schoolhouse connections National Association of state student grant aid programs each of the regional Higher Education contacts. 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 Congress wants to encourage to attend college to benefit from federal Financial Aid. In tennessee former governor bill edison trait of the tennessee promise in tennessee reconnect programs to provide two years of free Immunity College to any tennessee and without a degree. All they have to do is fill out the fafsa yet the governor told me the fafsa is the single biggest barrier to helping more tennesseans take advantages for the opportunity for two or three years of Higher Education could direct him to finish the job is now the time when College Students and their families are under so much pressure facing basing so much uncertainty especially homeless students students in foster care and those living with grandparents. I hope we can pass Bipartisan Legislation to do so by the end of this year. I will now recognize senator murray for her Opening Statement. Mr. Chairman first of all let me just 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 as the 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 the university of tennessee secretary of education, this committee and i are entire country everyone has really benefited from your expertise and your experience and i will say what i said again we all owe you a debt of gratitude and really really appreciate all your work. Throughout our time together on the house ways means to pass the futures act hbcus and updated our nations technoEducation Program and a fork together with pell grants just to name a few and just in Higher Education. Again, thank you so much for all of your contributions and of course today we are discussing an issue near and dear to you where you are to have an impressive legacy and that is the fafsa. Im proud of the steps are taken to improve the sat 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 teacher act which will streamline the process to help students securely use the Tax Information r. D. On file with the federal 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 already made that so much easier to navigate but of course we both agree there is more work to be done. The ongoing pandemic is also having a profound Economic Impact on families across the country and we are already seeing students facing unprecedented struggles when it comes to paying for college. The fafsa must be a tool that expands access to Higher Education not at their ear that are events 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 students in foster care and students and families that have low incomes can successfully get access to the pell grants available to them. Right now the students who need our help the most who are facing the biggest burdens and Financial Aid. Those students dont often have the resources to navigate the College Financial process and the struggle with counselors and oftentimes without 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 on the fafsa less of a burden especially for families with low incomes. Determining pell grants based on the federal Poverty Level so more students and families can easily know the amount of help they will receive an fully implementing the future act as soon as possible. We cant stop there by the way. We need to get serious about connecting the students to pell grants and work to ensure that students dont miss out on state and federal support programs they may be eligible for that could