[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5528 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5528

 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to simplify the FAFSA, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 20, 2016

 Mr. Heck of Nevada (for himself, Mr. Roe of Tennessee, Mr. Polis, and 
  Mr. Pocan) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to simplify the FAFSA, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Simplifying the Application for 
Student Aid Act''.

SEC. 2. USING DATA FROM SECOND PRECEDING YEAR.

    Section 480(a)(1)(B) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1087vv(a)(1)(B)) is amended by striking ``may'' in both places it 
appears and inserting ``shall''.

SEC. 3. CALCULATION OF ANNUAL ADJUSTMENT PERCENTAGE FOR FEDERAL PELL 
              GRANTS.

    Section 401(b)(7)(C)(iv)(I) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 1070a(b)(7)(C)(iv)(I)) is amended by striking ``calendar year'' 
and inserting ``fiscal year''.

SEC. 4. FAFSA SIMPLIFICATION.

    (a) FAFSA Simplification.--Section 483 of the Higher Education Act 
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1090) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(3), by adding at the end the 
        following:
                    ``(I) Format.--Not later than 180 days after the 
                date of the enactment of the Simplifying the 
                Application for Student Aid Act, the Secretary shall 
                make the electronic version of the forms under this 
                paragraph available through a technology tool that can 
                be used on mobile devices. Such technology tool shall, 
                at minimum, enable applicants to--
                            ``(i) save data; and
                            ``(ii) submit their FAFSA to the Secretary 
                        through such tool.
                    ``(J) Consumer testing.--In developing and 
                maintaining the electronic version of the forms under 
                this paragraph and the technology tool for mobile 
                devices under subparagraph (I), the Secretary shall 
                conduct consumer testing with appropriate persons to 
                ensure the forms and technology tool are designed to be 
                easily usable and understandable by students and 
                families. Such consumer testing shall include, but is 
                not limited to--
                            ``(i) current and prospective college 
                        students, family members of such students, and 
                        other individuals with expertise in student 
                        financial assistance application processes;
                            ``(ii) dependent students and independent 
                        students meeting the requirements under 
                        subsection (b) or (c) of section 479; and
                            ``(iii) dependent students and independent 
                        students who do not meet the requirements under 
                        subsection (b) or (c) of section 479.''; and
            (2) by amending subsection (f) to read as follows:
    ``(f) Use of Internal Revenue Service Data Retrieval Tool To 
Populate FAFSA.--
            ``(1) Simplification efforts.--The Secretary shall--
                    ``(A) make every effort to use 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) 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 single taxpayers, married taxpayers 
                filing jointly, and married taxpayers filing separately 
                to utilize the 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 on the progress of the simplification 
        efforts under this subsection.
            ``(4) Reports on fafsa access.--Not less than once every 10 
        years, the Secretary shall report to the authorizing committees 
        on the needs of limited English proficient students using the 
        FAFSA.''.
    (b) Funding.--
            (1) Use of existing funds.--Of the amount authorized to be 
        appropriated to the Department of Education to maintain the 
        Free Application for Federal Student Aid, $3,000,000 shall be 
        available to carry out this Act and the amendments made by this 
        Act.
            (2) No additional funds authorized.--No funds are 
        authorized by this Act to be appropriated to carry out this Act 
        or the amendments made by this Act.
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