Sponsors
The bill raises and indexes stipends to protect participants' purchasing power and add limited veteran support, but does so at the cost of higher near-term spending and ongoing budgetary commitments for taxpayers and program administrators.
Students in federally funded projects will have stipend maximums preserved and then automatically adjusted for inflation starting in FY2028, keeping their real purchasing power from eroding over time.
Some veterans participating in FY2027 projects may receive up to $300 per month, expanding direct monthly support for veteran participants in those programs.
Automatic CPI-based indexing of stipend caps will incrementally increase program spending each year, creating larger long-term budgetary commitments for taxpayers and institutions unless Congress provides offsets.
Higher stipend caps in FY2027 (including larger one-time increases for some categories) could raise near-term program costs, potentially reducing the number of available participant slots or requiring additional appropriations from Congress.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Sets FY2027 Upward Bound stipend caps and requires annual CPI-based increases (rounded to nearest $10) beginning in FY2028.
Makes a small change to how Upward Bound student stipends are described and sets them to increase automatically with inflation after fiscal year 2027. The bill lists specific monthly stipend caps for FY2027 and requires the Secretary to raise those dollar amounts each year after FY2027 by the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index, rounding each year’s new amounts to the nearest $10.
Introduced February 25, 2026 by Danny K. Davis · Last progress February 25, 2026