Sponsors
The bill raises immediate stipend levels and adds CPI-based indexing to protect future value, but temporary FY2027 changes, a reduced cap for at least one group, and rounding rules create risks of uneven pay and small losses for some participants.
Students in FY2027 projects will receive materially higher monthly stipends (for example, one category rises from $300 to $900), increasing their ability to cover living and participation costs.
Students and veterans will have stipend rates automatically adjusted for inflation beginning in FY2028 (CPI-based indexing), which helps preserve the real value of support over time.
Some participants (especially low-income students) could see their monthly cap reduced for at least one stipend category (from $40 to $20), cutting support for the most financially vulnerable.
Students may face uneven pay across cohorts because the FY2027 increases are temporary and may not be fully harmonized with the new indexed rates, creating potential fairness and retention issues.
Students and veterans could experience small discrepancies from exact inflation protection because CPI adjustments are rounded to the nearest $10, slightly eroding precision over time.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Temporarily raises certain FY2027 Upward Bound stipend caps, allows higher veteran stipends for FY2027, and then indexes stipend caps to CPI annually starting FY2028 with $10 rounding.
Introduced February 25, 2026 by Danny K. Davis · Last progress February 25, 2026
Raises temporary monthly stipend caps for students in TRIO Upward Bound projects assisted in fiscal year 2027, adds a temporary higher cap for veterans in veteran-specific projects in FY2027, and then puts stipend caps on an automatic inflation adjustment starting in FY2028 tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) with annual rounding to the nearest $10. The change replaces fixed dollar caps with a CPI-indexing mechanism so stipend levels are updated each year without additional legislation.