House Rules Committee Advances 3 Bills to Floor Vote for Lame Duck Adoption

A bipartisan measure addressing the FAFSA fiasco is cleared for passage before year’s end, while Democrats say ‘wait until next year’ for the other two.

A Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form from the U.S. Department of Education. Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Shutterstock

The House Rules Committee has advanced three proposed bills to the floor, with one measure installing a “hard” Oct. 1 annual deadline for federal college assistance applications.

That bill has enough bipartisan momentum potentially to be adopted by the lame-duck Congress by year’s end. After a 40-minute hearing on Nov. 12 attended by nine of 13 members, the panel moved The FAFSA Deadline Act to a chamber vote with little objection. It could be heard on the floor this week.