WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan amendment to the House-passed FUTURE Act co-sponsored by Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) to make permanent $255 million in annual funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions (MSI), simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for 20 million American families, and streamline income-driven repayment for nearly 8 million borrowers. Senator Tillis was also a co-sponsor of the FAFSA Act that was included in the legislation.

“HBCUs play an important role in developing a strong, diverse workforce in North Carolina and across the country,” said Senator Tillis. “I am proud the Senate was able to come together on a bipartisan basis to permanently reauthorize annual funding for HBCUs and MSIs so we can provide certainty to these institutions and help millions of students.”

Background on the Amendment:

• Permanently reauthorizes and provides $255 million in annual mandatory funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other Minority Serving Institutions
• Is fully paid for by including the FAFSA Act which passed the Senate unanimously last year and which:
  • Allows Providing Tax Information only Once—Students do not have to give their tax information to the federal government twice
  • Eliminates up to 22 Questions—Students give permission to the Department of Education to request tax return data already given to the Internal Revenue Service, which reduces the 108 questions on the FAFSA by up to 22 questions
  • Eliminates Verification Nightmare—For most students, eliminates so-called “verification” which is a bureaucratic nightmare that 5.5 million students go through annually to make sure the information they gave to the Department of Education is exactly the same as they gave to the IRS 
  • Eliminates $6 Billion in Mistakes—According to the Department of Education, helps taxpayers by eliminating up to $6 billion each year in mistakes (both overpayments and underpayments) in Pell grants and student loans
  • Enables 7 million applicants who are currently unable to access their IRS data for their FAFSA to verify that they do not file taxes without requesting separate documentation from the IRS
  • Streamlines income driven repayment by eliminating burdensome annual paperwork for 7.7 million federal student loan borrowers on income-driven plans
• According to the Congressional Budget Office, the FAFSA Act saves taxpayers $2.8 billion over ten years which will be used to pay for the permanent funding for HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions.

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