ACE and 33 other higher education groups sent a letter
(269 KB PDF) to House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders expressing strong
support for restoring year-round Pell Grants in any spending bill they
devise for the rest of FY 2017.
Before going on its pre-election break at the end of September,
Congress hammered out an agreement to fund the federal government from
Oct. 1 to Dec. 9. When lawmakers return after the election for the
lame-duck session, they must pass a spending bill for the remainder of
the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, 2017.
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees both approved bills
over the summer to fund Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and
Related Agencies for FY 2017. Both measures provide sufficient funding
to allow for the scheduled increase in the maximum Pell Grant in
2017-18, which is $5,935. But only the Senate bill reinstates year-round
Pell Grants, which were eliminated due to cost in 2011. The Senate bill
also provides additional funding to award grants to one million more
students.
Both bills take funding from a surplus in the Pell Grant Program to
pay for other priorities. The letter expressed the groups belief that
this surplus should remain within the program to fund initiatives such
as year-round grants.
“Encouraging all eligible students—no matter their credit
accumulation or enrollment intensity—to attend college year-round will
expedite time-to-degree, significantly lower opportunity costs, and
allow more rapid entry into the workforce. The language in the Senate
bill achieves these ends,” the groups wrote. “It would therefore be
entirely fitting to use the available surplus funding to restore this
crucial benefit to needy students and return dividends to the nation in
the form of accelerated degree attainment across sectors.”