CSPEN Has Confirmed With Key Sources That FSA Is Not Impacted By Last Night’s Trump Announcement
Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs (s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25506186/m-25-13-temporary-pause-to-review-agency-grant-loan-and-other-financial-assistance-programs.pdf).” The memo outlined new guidance from the Trump Administration which required all Federal agencies to take step to “to identify and review all Federal financial Assistance (footnote language below) programs and supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements.” And went on to state, “Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the Green New Deal.”
The release of this new directive was immediately reviewed by CSPEN in order to assist the community in determining whether or not the freeze impacted students access to Federal Title IV Funds. We noted that contained in the footnotes the following guidance:
12 CFR 200.1 defines Federal financial assistance to mean “[a]ssistance that recipients or sub-recipients receive or administer” in various forms, but this term does not include assistance provided directly to individuals. For the purposes of this memorandum, Federal financial assistance includes: (i) all forms of assistance listed in paragraphs (1) and (2) of the definition of this term at 2 CFR 200.1; and (ii) assistance received or administered by recipients or sub-recipients of any type except for assistance received directly by individuals.
Based upon this language we turned immediately to well-placed senior individuals in both the new Administration and within Congress to determine whether our assessment was accurate and request more details on not only the impact on Federal Student Financial Aid, but also on other important education funding such as the funds provided under the GI Bill.
At this time, CSPEN can confirm directly from senior leadership within the GOP that “student aid is exempt and not included.” We do not have direct confirmation regarding GI Bill and other forms of educational assistance yet, but are working very hard to obtain similar information on other forms of educational grants and loans.
What’s Next
CSPEN has encouraged both the Trump Administration and Congress to quickly put out – in writing – additional information regarding the protection of students access to the assistance they are eligible to receive in pursuit of their education.
