Sponsors (30)
Official title: Improve the structure of the Federal Pell Grant program, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 23, 2026 by Mazie Hirono · Last progress June 23, 2026
The bill substantially expands and stabilizes Pell Grant support and broadens eligibility—improving affordability and access for many low‑income and underserved students—at the cost of materially higher federal spending and significant administrative transition burdens, with some risk that rule changes or implementation could reduce aid for certain students or dilute awards without adequate offsets.
Low- and moderate-income students will receive larger, more reliable Pell Grants because the bill raises the maximum (phased to $15,000) and makes future awards CPI‑indexed and mandatory from FY2026, preserving purchasing power over time.
More students gain or regain Title IV eligibility — including Dreamer/noncitizen students meeting new criteria, veterans with service or credentials, and applicants receiving means‑tested benefits or restored-prior‑eligibility groups — expanding access to federal aid for underserved populations.
Clearer statutory language, corrected cross‑references, and an explicit effective‑date framework reduce legal and administrative confusion for the Department of Education, states, and institutions, making eligibility and program rules easier to interpret and apply.
Federal spending would rise materially — higher maximum Pell awards, mandatory entitlement status, and expanded eligibility increase outlays and could raise deficits or require offsets paid by taxpayers.
Colleges, states, and the Department of Education will face substantial administrative and IT transition costs and implementation burdens to update statutes, systems, verification rules, SAP policies, and reporting — a multi‑section renovation of processes.
Some students could unexpectedly lose eligibility or receive less aid because corrected cross‑references, replacement text, tightened eligibility or removal of an obsolete paragraph may change who qualifies or how awards are calculated.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Raises and CPI-indexes Pell maximums, makes Pell mandatory funding, expands eligibility (negative SAI, means-tested benefits, Dreamer students), and revises SAP rules.
Makes broad changes to the Pell Grant program and related Higher Education Act rules to expand grant amounts, change funding to mandatory appropriations, alter eligibility and SAI treatment, create a Dreamer student aid category with a hardship waiver, and revise institutional satisfactory academic progress rules. Most changes take effect July 1, 2026 and apply to award year 2026–2027 and later; the Secretary of Education may act earlier to implement them. Key policy moves include setting a new schedule of higher maximum Pell awards (starting $10,000 in 2026–27 and rising to $15,000 in 2031–32 and then CPI-indexed), replacing discretionary Pell funding with mandatory “such sums as may be necessary,” expanding eligibility for students with negative Student Aid Index values, treating recent means-tested benefit recipiency as an automatic -$1,500 SAI, defining and providing regulatory relief for certain noncitizen “Dreamer” students, and tightening and standardizing institutional Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) rules with specific GPA requirements and appeal/ probation processes.