On this page, you'll find proposals to increase student and family awareness of institutional policies or provide students and borrowers with additional information.

H.R.4616 — Informed Student Borrowing Act of 2023

Sponsor: Rep. Grotham [R-WI]
Introduced: 07/13/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would require students receiving Direct Loans and parents receiving parent PLUS loans to complete EDs Entrance Counseling, renamed to just Counseling by this act, each award year that they plan to borrow Federal Loans, instead of just once at the beginning of their education career. The bill would also require students to actively acknowledge receipt of loan counseling materials. In addition to existing counseling requirements, institutions will need to provide disclosure materials including sample monthly repayment amounts based on the 10-year repayment plan and the most used income-driven repayment (IDR) plan, median annual earnings of students at the institution, percent of borrowers no longer enrolled and in repayment, completion rate for undergraduate borrowers, and the annual percentage rate of the loan based on a 10-year repayment plan so that students can compare to private loans. Additionally, work study notifications would be required to include an explanation that funds are awarded upon completion of work over time. 

H.R.5042/S.2629 — Higher Education Reform and Opportunity Act 

Sponsor:  Roy [Rep.-R-TX] & Lee [Sen.-R-UT]
Introduced: 07/27/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would consolidate Federal Student Loans into one option, Federal Direct Simplification Loans, and phase out all income-contingent repayment plans. It would allow dependent undergraduates to borrow up to $30,000 over the course of their study, independent undergraduates to borrow up to $60,000, and graduate students to borrow up to $74,000. The undergraduate repayment term would be 15 years, and the graduate/professional repayment term would be 25 years. The bill would also require Title IV participating institutions to publish student outcomes data, including the number of students receiving federal and state grants and loans, default and non-repayment rates, as well as completion rates and other outcomes. The bill would make changes to the student loan repayment system, requiring institutions to pay an annual default rate fine in proportion to the amount of outstanding debt that students are not making regular on-time payments.

S.1970 — Informed Student Borrowing Act of 2023

Sponsor: Sen. Daines [R-MT]
Introduced: 06/14/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would require students receiving Direct Loans and parents receiving parent PLUS loans to complete the Department of Education’s Entrance Counseling, renamed to just Counseling by this act, each award year that they plan to borrow Federal Loans, instead of just once at the beginning of their education career. The bill would also require students to actively acknowledge receipt of loan counseling materials. In addition to existing counseling requirements, institutions will need to provide disclosure materials including sample monthly repayment amounts based on the 10-year repayment plan and the most used income-driven repayment (IDR) plan, median annual earnings of students at the institution, percent of borrowers no longer enrolled and in repayment, completion rate for undergraduate borrowers, and the annual percentage rate of the loan based on a 10-year repayment plan so that students can compare to private loans. Additionally, work study notifications would be required to include an explanation that funds are awarded upon completion of work over time. 

 S.1972 — Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act

Sponsor: Sen. Cassidy [R-LA]
Introduced: 06/14/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This is a package of 5 bills including the College Transparency Act, the Understanding the True Cost of College Act, the Informed Student Borrowing Act, the Graduate Opportunity and Affordable Loans Act, and the Streamlining Accountability and Value in Education for Students Act. Together, these bills seek to simplify and increase transparency in the loan borrowing and repayment process by reducing the number of repayment plan options from nine plans to two, standardizing financial aid award letters, limiting graduate student borrowing, and reforming college data reporting systems to provide better outcomes data for students and families in the college search process. 

H.R.3453 — Higher Standards for Higher Education Act

Sponsor: Rep. Van Duyne [R-TX]
Introduced: 05/17/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would require that ED collect and report additional data on default and other metrics, including the number of current and former students who enter federal student loan repayment and the percentage of those students who default before the end of the second succeeding fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the students entered repayment. Reporting would be required for each program of study at institutions for which ED already annually reports cohort default data. This bill would apply only to higher education institutions with endowments of $1 billion or more. 

H.R.3452 — Combating Predatory Lending in Higher Education Act of 2023
Sponsor: Rep. Van Duyne [R-TX]
Introduced: 05/17/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would include PLUS loans made to graduate students and parents in the calculation for an institution's Cohort Default Rate (CDR). 

H.R.2957/S.1349  — College Transparency Act

Sponsor: Krishnamoorthi [Rep.-D-IL] & Cassidy [Sen.-R-LA]
Introduced: 04/27/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would create a new "postsecondary student data system," thereby repealing the ban on the federal government from collecting student-level data. The bill aims to modernize the federal data reporting system, thereby reducing data reporting burdens on institutions. The data system would contain data elements related to student enrollment, persistence, retention, transfer, and completion measures. The bill contains several privacy provisions and includes prohibitions on the collection of certain information, including religion, course grades, and citizenship status, among others. Ultimately, the new data collection will be used to create a user-friendly portal for the public to compare institutions. The bill's provisions apply to all institutions of higher education that receive Title IV federal student aid.

H.R.1682/S.889 — Protecting Students from Worthless Degrees Act

Sponsor: Krishnamoorthi [Rep.-D-IL] & Merkley [Sen.-D-OR]
Introduced: 03/21/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill aims to provide consumer protections for students by putting into place measures that would result in students being prepared to work in the occupation or profession of their choosing after successful completion of a program. No later than December 31 following the date of the enactment of this bill, the most senior executive officer of the institution will need to submit a certification to ED indicating that the institution and each of the eligible gainful employment programs included in the approval certification of the institution, meet the requirements outlined in the bill.

H.R.1371 — Student Loan Disclosure Transparency Act of 2023

Sponsor: Spanberger [Rep.-D-VA] 
Introduced: 03/03/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would require that a written or electronic disclosure be sent before a student loan is disbursed outlining the principal loan amount, interest rate on the loan, and how many monthly payments will need to be made on the loan. The number of monthly payments and the projected amount of that payment will be determined by following a standard repayment plan, unless the borrower has otherwise selected another repayment plan. This disclosure would also include the number of months a borrower will have before their repayment period begins and the estimated balance that the borrower will owe on the loan, including a total estimate of the interest that will be capitalized. In addition to this disclosure before loan disbursement, the bill would require that each eligible lender of student loans distribute monthly disclosures to their borrowers outlining similar components to those previously mentioned. 

H.R.1311 — College Cost Transparency and Student Protection Act

Sponsor: McClain [Rep.-R-MI]
Introduced: 03/01/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would amend the HEA and would require that ED publish requirements for financial aid offers used by institutions of higher education for currently enrolled and prospective students. This bill outlines that financial aid offers may not be referred to as an award letter, will need to include standardized terms and definitions, and establishes formatting requirements for the aid offers. It does not require an aid offer template. Additionally, the bill will turn the aid offer into a two-step process by which students are first offered aid only for their direct educational expenses. Students would then opt in to requesting aid for indirect expenses, after which a more customized aid offer with their estimated indirect expenses and aid eligibility is issued. Loans could not be presented in a way that "indicates or implies that such loans reduce the amount owed to the institution or reduce the out-of-pocket costs.”

• House Republicans Introduce Financial Aid Offer Legislation

S.530/H.R.1216 — Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act of 2023

Sponsors: Grassley [Sen.-R-IA] & Miller-Meeks [Rep.-R-IA] 
Introduced: 02/27/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would require entrance counseling, renamed “Pre-Loan Counseling,” to be administered before the disbursement of each new loan in each award year. This bill would also create periodic disclosures, which would be sent to every loan borrower on a quarterly basis, which contain updated information on how much they’ve borrowed, any interest capitalization that has occurred and their individual borrower information. 

S.531/H.R.1214 — Net Price Calculator Improvement Act

Sponsors: Grassley [Sen.-R-IA] & Guthrie [Rep.-R-KY] 
Introduced: 02/27/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would allow the creation of a centralized website to allow students to compare estimates of their net price for individual institutions across multiple colleges at once. It would include the institution’s net price, as well as all components of the institution’s Cost of Attendance, as well as the estimated total need-based grant aid and merit-based grant aid, from Federal, State, and institutional sources, that may be available to the student. 

S.528/H.R.1198 — Understanding the True Cost of College Act of 2023

Sponsors: Grassley [Sen.-R-IA] & Kim [Rep.-R-CA]
Introduced: 02/27/2023
NASFAA Summary & Analysis: This bill would mandate standard terminology and a standard format for financial aid aid offers. The standardized items—such as the cost of attendance (listed direct and indirect costs), tuition, and fees—would need to be included on the first page of the aid offer. The aid offer must also include housing, food, books, supplies, and transportation, among other items in the cost of attendance. Grants and scholarships would need to be grouped together in their own section with a disclosure that grant aid does not need to be repaid. Subsidized and unsubsidized loans would need to be clearly labeled and include a disclosure that loans have to be repaid. Additionally, this bill would not permit that Federal Work-Study (FWS) be included in the financial aid category and a disclosure would need to indicate to students that FWS positions are subject to the availability of qualified employment and that these funds are paid over time throughout their employment.

Legislative Tracker Overview   |   Archive: Consumer Information & Transparency