Sponsors (2)
The bill increases transparency, governance structure, and clarity for Truman Scholarship administration and applicants but does so by imposing stricter political/behavioral eligibility rules, new appointment mechanics, and permanent public disclosures that risk excluding rehabilitated applicants, exposing personal data, and causing transitional disruption and added administrative burdens.
Students (current and near-term applicants) gain clearer and in some cases expanded eligibility and application rules (including explicit notices), making it easier to know who qualifies and reducing ambiguity at application time.
Governance of the Truman Foundation is made more bipartisan and continuity-oriented (party-balance limits, staggered six-year terms), which should reduce partisan dominance and preserve institutional knowledge over time.
Applicants and recipients receive clearer procedural protections: written notice of eligibility/repayment/termination rules before first payment and an opportunity for a hearing before payments are stopped.
Students and early-career applicants can be disqualified or chilled by broader political-affiliation definitions and party-affiliation appointment rules, reducing opportunities and potentially deterring political engagement.
Categorical bans for applicants with past disciplinary suspensions or any felony convictions block rehabilitated individuals from consideration, eliminating second‑chance opportunities.
Immediate termination of current board members and the need to rapidly replace multiple trustees (plus potential Senate confirmation delays) risk operational disruption and loss of institutional knowledge at the Foundation.
Based on analysis of 16 sections of legislative text.
Restructures Truman Scholarship governance, defines political affiliation, creates regional review panels, tightens eligibility/termination/repayment rules, and requires permanent public posting of certain Foundation materials for awards after enactment.
Introduced March 12, 2026 by Elise M. Stefanik · Last progress March 12, 2026
Rewrites how the Harry S. Truman Scholarship is run: it replaces the Foundation’s board with a new 13-member board that mixes Congressional and Presidential appointees, defines what it means to be “affiliated with” a political party, creates Regional Review Panels to pick winners, tightens who is eligible and who can be disqualified, adds new repayment and termination rules for recipients, and requires the Foundation to permanently publish certain materials on a public website. Most provisions apply to Truman Scholarships awarded on or after enactment and the new Board members must be installed as part of a transition timeline.