Title II — Simplifying the Fafsa

“(13) FAFSA pathways

“(A) Memorandum of understanding—Not later than the effective date of the Simple FAFSA Act of 2019, the Secretary shall seek to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of the Treasury, under which any information exchanged under an income and eligibility verification system established pursuant to section 1137 of the Social Security Act by State agencies administering a program listed in paragraph (1), (4), or (5) of subsection (b) of such section which may be of use in establishing or verifying eligibility or benefit amounts under such program shall be made available to the Secretary of Education to assist in determining whether the applicant (or, in the case of a dependent applicant, whether the applicant or the applicant’s parents) received a benefit at some time during the previous 24-month period under a means-tested Federal benefit program, but subject to the requirements of Federal law.

“(B) Requirement for all applicants and the secretary—For any award year for which an applicant applies for financial assistance under this title (except for any award year for which, pursuant to paragraph (14), the applicant is not required to submit a FAFSA)—

“(i) the applicant shall provide on the form described in this subsection whether the applicant received (or, in the case of a dependent applicant, whether the applicant or the parents of the applicant received) a benefit at some time during the previous 24-month period under a means-tested Federal benefit program; and

“(ii) the Secretary, to the extent practicable and pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding entered into under subparagraph (A), and without any further action by the applicant, shall verify the applicant’s (or, in the case of a dependent applicant, the applicant’s or the applicant’s parents) receipt of such benefit.

“(C) Pathway one applicants

“(i) In general—With respect to an applicant who received (or, in the case of a dependent applicant, an applicant who received or whose parents received) a benefit at some time during the previous 24-month period under a means-tested Federal benefit program, the applicant shall not be required to provide any further income or asset information on the form under this subsection.

“(ii) Designation—For purposes of this section and part F, an applicant described in clause (i) shall be referred to as a “pathway one applicant”.

“(D) Pathway two applicants

“(i) In general—With respect to an applicant who is not a pathway one applicant and is described in clause (ii), the Secretary, to the extent practicable, shall use the data retrieval tool under section 484(q) to obtain any information for the applicant beyond the information described in subparagraph (A) for purposes of the form under this subsection.

“(ii) Requirements—An applicant described in this clause is an applicant who certifies that—

“(I) the applicant is not required to file or, in the case of a dependent applicant, no parent of the applicant is required to file—

“(aa) a Federal income tax return; or

“(bb) with respect to Internal Revenue Service Form 1040, any of the following forms: Schedule A, Schedule B, Schedule C, Schedule C–EZ, Schedule D, Schedule E, Schedule F, Schedule H, Schedule J, and Schedule SE; and

“(II) the sum of the adjusted gross income of the applicant or, in the case of a dependent applicant, the parents of the applicant, is less than or equal to $60,000.

“(iii) Designation—For purposes of this section and part F, an applicant described in clause (i) shall be referred to as a “pathway two applicant”.

“(E) Pathway three applicants

“(i) In general—With respect to an applicant who is not a pathway one applicant or a pathway two applicant, the Secretary, to the extent practicable, shall use the data retrieval tool under section 484(q) to obtain any information for the applicant beyond the information described in subparagraph (A) for purposes of the form under this subsection.

“(ii) Designation—For purposes of this section and part F, an applicant described in clause (i) shall be referred to as a “pathway three applicant”.

“(F) Means-tested federal benefit program defined—For purposes of this paragraph, the term means-tested Federal benefit program has the meaning given the term in section 479(d).”

“(14) One-time FAFSA filing

“(A) In general—Notwithstanding any other provision of this section and subject to subparagraphs (B) and (C), an applicant who submits a FAFSA for the first time for an award year for the period required for the completion of the first undergraduate baccalaureate course of study being pursued by such applicant and is eligible to receive a Federal Pell Grant for such award year, for any succeeding award year—

“(i) for which the applicant does not submit a FAFSA and for which the applicant submits a certification form described in subparagraph (D) that does not indicate a change in the dependency status of such applicant, such applicant—

“(I) shall not be required to submit a FAFSA to receive financial assistance under this title; and

“(II) shall have an expected family contribution for such year that is equal to the expected family contribution of the applicant determined for the award year for which the applicant submitted a FAFSA for such period, except that an adjustment to such expected family contribution may be made under section 479A;

“(ii) for which the applicant submits a certification form described in subparagraph (D) that indicates a change in the dependency status of the applicant, such applicant—

“(I) shall be required to submit a FAFSA with respect to such award year to receive financial assistance under this title; and

“(II) shall have an expected family contribution for such year that is determined based on such FAFSA;

“(iii) for which the applicant submits a FAFSA, such applicant—

“(I) shall have an expected family contribution for such year that is determined based on such FAFSA; and

“(II) shall be required to submit a FAFSA for any other award year for which the applicant seeks financial assistance under this title; and

“(iv) for which the applicant does not submit a certification form described in subparagraph (D), such applicant shall submit a FAFSA for such succeeding award year and any other award year for which the applicant seeks financial assistance under this title.

“(B) Adjustment of expected family contribution—With respect to an applicant described in subparagraph (A)(i) who receives an adjustment under section 479A to the expected family contribution of the applicant for an award year, for any succeeding award year after the award year for which the adjustment was made, subclause (II) of such subparagraph shall be applied to such applicant by substituting “expected family contribution of the applicant as most recently adjusted under section 479A for such applicant” for the “expected family contribution of the applicant determined for the award year for which the applicant submitted a FAFSA for such period”.

“(C) Rule for certain students—With respect to an applicant who submits a FAFSA for award year 2020–2021 and enrolls in an institution of higher education for such year, subparagraph (A) shall be applied—

“(i) in the matter preceding clause (i), by substituting “award year 2020–2021” for “the first time for an award year”; and

“(ii) in clause (i)(II), by substituting “award year 2020–2021” for “the award year for which the applicant submitted a FAFSA for such period”.

“(D) Student certification form—The Secretary, in cooperation with representatives of agencies and organizations involved in student financial assistance, shall use behavioral science insights to produce, distribute, and process free of charge a short and simple consumer-tested certification form that uses skip logic to bypass fields that are inapplicable to an applicant. Such form shall not require an applicant to provide data that the Secretary may otherwise obtain with respect to the applicant (such as age or active duty military status), and may only contain the data elements required for purposes of subparagraph (A)(i)—

“(i) to confirm whether the applicant is—

“(I) a dependent student;

“(II) a single independent student or a married independent student without dependents (other than a spouse); or

“(III) an independent student with dependents other than a spouse;

“(ii) to allow the applicant to update the contact information of such applicant or the Federal School Code of the institution of higher education in which the applicant is, or will be enrolled, for the award year for which the applicant submits such form; and

“(iii) to ask whether the applicant’s need and eligibility for financial assistance under this title has not changed substantially since the most recent of the following:

“(I) The applicant submitted a FAFSA.

“(II) The applicant received an adjustment under section 479A to the expected family contribution of the applicant.

“(E) Definitions—In this paragraph:

“(i) Dependency status—The term dependency status means the status of an applicant as—

“(I) a dependent student;

“(II) a single independent student or a married independent student without dependents (other than a spouse); or

“(III) an independent student with dependents other than a spouse.

“(ii) Succeeding award year—The term succeeding award year—

“(I) when used with respect to an applicant who submits a FAFSA for the first time for an award year for the period required for the completion of the first undergraduate baccalaureate course of study being pursued by such applicant, means any award year for such period that follows the award year for which the applicant submits such FAFSA; and

“(II) when used with respect to an applicant described in subparagraph (C), means any award year after award year 2020–2021 for the period required for the completion of the first undergraduate baccalaureate course of study being pursued by such applicant.”

“(15) FAFSA in various languages—The Secretary shall—

“(A) translate the form developed under this subsection into not fewer than 11 foreign languages based on the languages most often spoken by English learner students and their parents, and make the translated form available and accessible to applicants in paper and electronic formats; and

“(B) ensure that the form developed under this subsection is available in formats accessible to individuals with disabilities.”

“(f) Use of internal revenue service data retrieval tool To populate FAFSA

“(1) Simplification efforts—The Secretary shall—

“(A) make every effort to allow applicants to utilize the current data retrieval tool to transfer data available from the Internal Revenue Service to reduce the amount of original data entry by applicants and strengthen the reliability of data used to calculate expected family contributions, including through the use of technology to—

“(i) allow an applicant to automatically populate the electronic version of the forms under this paragraph with data available from the Internal Revenue Service; and

“(ii) direct an applicant to appropriate questions on such forms based on the applicant’s answers to previous questions; and

“(B) allow taxpayers, regardless of filing status, to utilize the current data retrieval tool to its full capacity.

“(2) Use of tax return in application process—The Secretary shall continue to examine whether data provided by the Internal Revenue Service can be used to generate an expected family contribution without additional action on the part of the student and taxpayer.

“(3) Reports on fafsa simplification efforts—Not less than once every other year, the Secretary shall report to the authorizing committees and the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate on the progress of the simplification efforts under this subsection.”

“(i) FAFSA verification

“(1) In general—With respect to applicants who submit a FAFSA for an award year and were determined using data provided in such FAFSA to be eligible to receive a Federal Pell Grant for such award year, the Secretary shall submit to the authorizing committees, and make publicly available, a report for such award year on—

“(A) the number and share of such applicants who received a Federal Pell Grant for such award year;

“(B) the number and share of such applicants who did not receive a Federal Pell Grant for such year;

“(C) the number and share of such applicants who were selected by the Secretary for verification of the data provided in the FAFSA;

“(D) to the extent practicable, the number and share of applicants described in subparagraph (C) who enrolled in an institution of higher education in a year after such selection;

“(E) the number and share of applicants described in subparagraph (C) who completed the verification process;

“(F) of the applicants described in subparagraph (E)—

“(i) the average of the expected family contribution for all such applicants as determined using data provided in the FAFSA;

“(ii) the average of the expected family contribution difference for all such applicants;

“(iii) the average of the expected family contribution difference for all such applicants whose expected family contribution as determined using data provided in the verification process was greater than the expected family contribution as determined using data provided in the FAFSA; and

“(iv) the average of the expected family contribution difference for all such applicants whose expected family contribution as determined using data provided in the FAFSA was greater than the expected family contribution as determined using data provided in the verification process;

“(G) of the applicants described in subparagraph (E)—

“(i) the average Federal Pell Grant amount for all such applicants as determined using data provided in the FAFSA;

“(ii) the average of the Federal Pell Grant difference for all such applicants;

“(iii) the average of the Federal Pell Grant difference for all such applicants whose Federal Pell Grant amount as determined using data provided in the verification process was greater than the Federal Pell Grant amount as determined using data provided in the FAFSA;

“(iv) the average of the Federal Pell Grant difference for all such applicants whose Federal Pell Grant amount as determined using data provided in the FAFSA was greater than the Federal Pell Grant amount as determined using data provided in the verification process; and

“(v) the number and share of such applicants who were determined using the data provided in the verification process to be ineligible for a Federal Pell Grant;

“(H) the number and share of applicants described in subparagraph (C) who received a Federal Pell Grant for such award year; and

“(I) the number and share of applicants described in subparagraph (C) who did not receive a Federal Pell Grant for such award year.

“(2) Disaggregation—The data provided in a report under paragraph (1) shall be disaggregated—

“(A) by applicants who were pathway one applicants for such year;

“(B) by applicants who were pathway two applicants for such year;

“(C) by applicants who were pathway three applicants for such year; and

“(D) with respect to applicants described in subparagraphs (C) and (E), the verification tracking groups of such applicants.

“(3) Definitions—In this subsection:

“(A) Expected family contribution difference—The term expected family contribution difference means, with respect to an applicant who completed a verification process with respect to the FAFSA, the difference between—

“(i) the expected family contribution of such applicant as determined using data provided in the FAFSA; and

“(ii) the expected family contribution of such applicant as determined using data provided in the verification process.

“(B) Federal pell grant difference—The term Federal Pell Grant difference means, with respect to an applicant who completed a verification process with respect to the FAFSA, the difference between—

“(i) the amount of the Federal Pell Grant of such applicant as determined using data provided in the FAFSA; and

“(ii) the amount of the Federal Pell Grant of such applicant as determined using data provided in the verification process.”