New name, same grant

House Republicans want to rename a new subset of Pell Grants after President Donald Trump, who signed a budget measure this summer that contained a provision creating them.

Republicans included the name change as part of the fiscal year 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act. In a Sept. 23 letter, Rhode Island’s two U.S. representatives, both Democrats, objected to calling the funds “Trump Grants.” They argued the funds should retain the name of the senator from their state who first proposed them.

Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., “saw the barriers that too many Americans faced in accessing higher education, and he believed the federal government had a responsibility to help break down those barriers,” the letter noted.

Pell spearheaded legislation calling for direct federal aid for students. In 1972, Congress enacted the program, at first called Basic Educational Opportunity Grants but later renamed to honor Pell. Grant recipients do not have to repay the funds as they would loans.

Students who do not already have bachelor’s degrees and are enrolled in qualifying programs are eligible for Pell Grants if their family demonstrates financial need. While Congress has not set specific financial thresholds for eligibility, 92% of students receiving a Pell Grant during the 2021-22 school year listed a family income of $60,000 or lower. In the 2023 fiscal year alone, 6.5 million students received about $31 billion in Pell Grants.

In July, Trump signed into law a measure that adds a Pell Grant designation for workforce programs. The new designation allows students pursuing career training to receive federal aid if they are enrolled in eligible programs for “in-demand industry sectors or occupations.”

Pell, Rhode Island’s longest-serving U.S. senator, died in 2009 at the age of 90.

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Aid form gets an early rollout

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced “the earliest launch of the FAFSA form in history,” even as the Trump administration moves forward with plans to close her agency.

Education officials released the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form for the 2026-27 school year on Sept. 24, one week ahead of its scheduled launch. The FAFSA determines how much federal financial aid—including Pell Grants—students receive. The department traditionally releases the form by Oct. 1 every year, a deadline lawmakers made official last November. But a 2023 update delayed the decades-old form’s availability for two years in a row. During the first school year after the update, many colleges and universities had to push back their decision deadlines as students scrambled to find out how much federal aid they would receive.

In July, the U.S. Supreme Court green-lighted the Trump administration’s plan for mass layoffs at the Education Department, though the plan is still making its way through the appeals courts. —L.D.