Legislative Efforts to Prevent FAFSA Fraud
Recent Action in Congress on Student Financial Aid
In recent years, colleges and financial aid administrators have been raising the alarm about dramatic increases in fraudulent Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applications, warning that they don’t have the necessary tools or workforce capacity to effectively counteract it and highlighting its impact on real students who miss out on needed financial aid. The issue has affected community colleges in California particularly hard, with schools estimating that 34% of applications in 2024 were fraudulent. In response, in April 2025, California Republican lawmakers in Congress called on the Department of Justice and Department of Education (ED) to investigate fake…
