Rep. Neguse Announces FAFSA Expansion of Access to Financial Aid for Veterans and Service Families, Continues Push to Protect Aid for all Students
Lafayette, CO — Today, Congressman Joe Neguse announced that the 2024 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will no longer require applicants to disclose certain untaxed items, including veteran’s non-educational benefits. This update, which will increase the accessibility of financial aid for military veterans and low-income families, came in response to a letter penned by Rep. Neguse urging U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Federal Student Aid Chief Operating Officer Richard Cordray to address issues related to federal student aid for veterans and their dependents.
“We must continue to reform the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to ensure that Americans seeking access to higher education are able to receive the level of support necessary to attend these institutions. And the decision to remove untaxed items, like veteran’s non-educational benefits, from the FAFSA form helps to ensure that federal veterans’ benefits do not impede access to other federal assistance. While this announcement is a big win for our veterans, service members, and their families, we must continue to push for improvements that broaden accessibility to higher education for everyone,” said Congressman Neguse.
“It is always satisfying to see one of the Veterans of Foreign Wars legislative priorities come to fruition. We are grateful to Congressman Neguse for his efforts to help encourage the Department of Education to remove questions about a veteran’s untaxed disability payments from the FAFSA form. The Congressman’s efforts will benefit the dependents of disabled veterans for generations, for which we are grateful,” said John Keene, Commander and Executive Director of the Department of Colorado VFW.
Congress Neguse has been a staunch advocate for updating this year’s FAFSA, and continues to be a proponent for updating the form in light of reports that the application’s aid calculation index has not been updated to reflect the ongoing rise in costs for many goods and services across the country. In November 2023, Rep. Neguse wrote to the Department of Education explicitly requesting that the form be updated to ensure that veterans' noneducation benefits like Disability, Death Pension, Dependency, Indemnity Compensation, and more do not impact applicants’ income calculations for expected contributions. Read the full letter here.
The FAFSA Simplification Act, enacted into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, updates the FAFSA process to expand access to federal student aid and provide an easier, streamlined FAFSA experience for students and families starting in the 2024–25 award year. Through this bill, the FAFSA form was shortened by 72 questions and now allows students to link their IRS account with their FAFSA account. The legislation was also enacted to ensure that the amount of military aid a student or parent receives for a college education would not defer their eligibility or reduce the amount of student aid that the student could receive from federal and state programs. Since 2021, the Department of Education (ED) has implemented these changes in phases; Rep. Neguse has been leading calls to the ED requesting they ensure that the final phase of implementation includes steps to remove certain untaxed income items from the application’s need analysis.
Background
Congressman Neguse is a strong advocate for American veterans and service members. In December 2023, President Biden signed Rep. Neguse’s Mental Health for Military Families Act into law. The Mental Health for Military Families Act is a bipartisan bill that expands access to counseling and mental health services for Colorado’s military families by allowing the Secretary of Defense to waive out-of-pocket expenses for military families on TRICARE for their first three outpatient mental health visits per year. The bill was signed into law as part of the FY24 NDAA, which also enacted Rep. Neguse’s Federal Data Center Enhancement Act — making the Congressman the member of Colorado’s congressional delegation with the most bills signed into law last year.
Also last year, Rep. Neguse introduced a bipartisan legislative package to ensure that veterans can access the services and resources they deserve. The bills, which include the Department of Veterans Affairs Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Processing Claims Improvement Act and the HUBS for Veterans Act, work to improve the treatment and compensation for veterans experiencing PTSD and create regional “network hubs” for veterans, service members, and their families to seek resources and support.
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