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Yesterday various members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee introduced a new bill to make the Pell Grant more flexible and reintroduced three bills introduced in the last Congress related to higher education affordability and transparency. The reintroduced bills address the use of prior-prior year income (PPY) in need analysis, counseling for students, and transparency for students and families.

For the fifth year in a row, NASFAA will host an event to inform congressional staff, media, and the general public about the state of federal financial aid. The 2015 NASFAA National Profile Briefing will be held Tuesday, July 28 in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Presenters, including members of NASFAA's Policy and Federal Relations staff, will cover federal financial aid programs, need analysis, and NASFAA tools, among other topics. Stay tuned for an online version of NASFAA's presentation and peruse historical financial aid data on NASFAA's online National Student Aid Profile webcenter.

In its second student aid-related action in one week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) fined Student Financial Aid Services (SFAS) for an illegal recurring billing scheme, the bureau announced Thursday.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) yesterday released a "First Look" report presenting preliminary data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System’s (IPEDS) fall 2014 collection on postsecondary institutions and price of attendance in 2014-15; degrees and other awards conferred: 2013-14; and 12-month enrollment in 2013-14.

A recently-released report from the American Council on Education (ACE) details how issues of race and class affect college and university admission practices today.

Whether you’re the financial aid director or an understudy rehearsing for the leading role, "You’re the Director: A Guide to Leadership in Student Financial Aid (2nd edition)" can help. This book is a must-have for new and aspiring financial aid professionals, as well as for seasoned financial aid directors seeking to improve their leadership skills. Order your copy today.

This letter summarizes the final regulations implementing statutory changes to the Clery Act.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is required by regulation to develop an earnings survey to support gainful employment program evaluations (see 34 CFR 668.406 as specified in final regulations published in the Federal Register in October 2014).

"For many high school students, just applying to college can be a challenge. But for some, test scores and grade-point averages aren’t the biggest things standing between them and a college acceptance letter," according to The Washington Post.

"In recent years the U.S. Senate has done plenty of hand-wringing over 'bad actors' in higher education, many of them for-profit and online. And that tension goes back to policy debates on distance education in the 1990s," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"Borrowing money is always a risky proposition because you’re betting on being able to pay back both the interest on the loan and principal—the amount you borrowed in the first place," The Fiscal Times reports.

"Lawyers representing former students of Corinthian Colleges Inc. are requesting permission to file a $2.5 billion claim against the defunct for-profit college operator," The Wall Street Journal reports.

"While the Obama administration's proposal to make community college free languishes in the Beltway, several states, including Tennessee, are moving ahead with their own plans to make earning an associate's degree as standard as a high school diploma," National Journal reports.

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday announced two new positions that will serve under director Richard Cordray," The Wall Street Journal reports.

"Donald Trump says he’s the best presidential candidate to help millennials, promising jobs for students drowning in student debt," The Hill reports.

"High schoolers who are considering West Virginia State University’s early enrollment will be given a break financially if they apply early enough," the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.

"'Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come,' is the translated prose of French poet and novelist Victor Hugo in The History of a Crime, which depicts the 1851 coup d’état that saw Napoleon’s rise to power. Those words still hold true today," Kristin D. Conklin, founding partner at HCM Strategists, writes in an opinion piece for The Hill.

"Aides for Martin O'Malley's presidential campaign said that the former governor and his wife had accumulated nearly $340,000 in debt putting two children through college for their undergraduate degrees. ... But Mr. O'Malley wants to craft federal financial aid policy based on his own unrepresentative experience," Donald Heller, dean of Michigan State University's College of Education, writes in an opinion piece for The Baltimore Sun.

"Yesterday I had the opportunity to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee about the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act to explore the barriers to and opportunities for innovation," Michael Horn writes in an opinion piece for Forbes.

"Like a lot of graduates, Hallie Ryan, 28, left the University of Michigan Law School in 2013 with big goals and a small fortune in student loan debt. ... Although she doesn’t work at a major private law firm, Ryan is able to make her student loan payments — and afford her other expenses at the same time — using income-based repayment, one of four income-driven repayment options the government offers federal student loan borrowers," according to NerdWallet Grad.

"Ever been involved in a conversation where the party who’s doing all the talking about one thing inadvertently spills the beans about something way more important?" Mitchell D. Weiss asks in a blog post for Credit.com.

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