The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), is the piece of federal legislation that authorizes most federal student assistance programs. It must be reauthorized periodically, typically every 4 to 6 years. During reauthorization Congress often makes changes and improvements in the legislation, such as adding new programs, streamlining existing programs and increasing authorized funding levels. Although changes can and do occur between reauthorizations of the HEA, the majority of important changes occur during reauthorization.

The next Reauthorization was due to occur in 2003. When Congress failed to pass a reauthorization bill, an automatic one-year extension occured, and then Congress passed more than a dozen additional extensions.

Previous reauthorizations of the Higher Education Act occured in 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1986, 1992 and 1998.

The following are key resources relating to Reauthorization:

• US Department of Education. This is the US Department of Education's page for information about the Department's activities with respect to Reauthorization. Public comments may be emailed to HEA.2004@ed.gov.

• NASFAA. This is the Reauthorization section of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators web site. It includes NASFAA's preliminary recommendations.

• NASFAA's Reauthorization Survey

• American Council on Education's Proposals.
  See also ACE's reaction to HR 4283.

• Kantrowitz's Reauthorization Proposals. These are a set of proposals for the 2003 Reauthorization written by Mark Kantrowitz, Publisher of FinAid.

• Kantrowitz EFC Simplification Testimony. Testimony by Mark Kantrowitz concerning EFC Formula Simplification at a hearing of the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance on September 19, 2006.

• Analysis of the Impact of Proposed Lender Subsidy Cuts on Lender Profitability. Analysis by Mark Kantrowitz of the impact of proposed cuts in lender special allowance payments and increases in risk sharing and lender-paid origination fees on lender profitability. The report found that the President's FY2008 budget proposal would yield net cuts of 57 bp to 63 bp, the House proposal would yield net cuts of 65 bp to 72 bp (larger for-profit lenders) and 55 bp to 52 bp (small and not-for-profit lenders), and the Senate proposal would yield net cuts of 58 bp to 64 bp (for-profit lenders) and 43 bp to 49 bp (not-for-profit lenders).

• Solving the Student Loan Credit Crunch. Policy paper by Mark Kantrowitz summarizing the impact of the subprime mortgage credit crisis on student loan cost and availability and suggesting several solutions.

• Impact of Bankruptcy Exception on Private Student Loan Availability. Analysis by Mark Kantrowitz of the impact of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 on the availability of private student loans to borrowers with low credit scores, finding only a slight improvement.

• Going to the Source: A Practical Way to Simplify the FAFSA, a report from TICAS concerning the potential use of IRS data to significantly cut the number of questions on the FAFSA.

• Scholarship Sponsorship Tax Credit Proposal. A proposal to establish a 50% tax credit for sponsorship of college scholarships. This would increase the number of private scholarships significantly.

• College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007. This is the conference report on HR 2669. Mark Kantrowitz wrote a summary of the conference report for HR 2669, noting any significant differences from the previous versions of the legislation.

• College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (HR 4137). This is the House reauthorization legislation. Mark Kantrowitz wrote a summary of key student aid related sections of the legislation.

• House Education and Workforce Committee. The committee introduced the College Access and Opportunity Act (108 HR4283) on May 5, 2004, as the core of their reauthorization legislation. This morphed into HR 609 in 2005, and later into the Higher Education Budget Reconciliation Act of 2005. (The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions originally introduced the College Quality, Affordability, and Diversity Improvement Act of 2003 (108 S1793), which later morphed into the Higher Education Amendments of 2005 (S.1614).) Related documents include:
  • Summary of Higher Education Budget Reconciliation Act of 2005, October 25, 2005
  • Summary of HR4241/S1932, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, as passed by the House on December 19, 2005. The student-aid-related subtitle is known as the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (HERA 2005). The US Department of Education issued guidance concerning HERA 2005 as Dear Colleague Letter GEN-06-02.
  • Summary of the new Graduate and Professional Student PLUS Loans

• Institute for Higher Education Policy. This is a review of the top ten issues by a nonprofit nonpartisan policy analysis and evaluation research organization.

• National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs

• National Association for Graduate and Professional Students

• AMA Task Force on Medical Student Debt 2003 Report

• Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance

• Democratic Criticism of President Bush's FY2006 Budget Proposals for Reauthorization (PDF)

• ACE Recommendations for Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act

• NASFAA Recommendations for Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act