In a letter to the House and Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittees, NAICU urged policy makers to continue supporting “increased funding for both the federal student aid and institutional aid programs that help low-income students access a higher education and persist to completing their degrees.”  The letter was sent to the committees as part of the FY 2024 budget and appropriations process. 

The NAICU request letter highlights the need to double the Pell Grant maximum award to $13,000, provide increases in all federal student aid programs that help low-income students pay for college and persist to completion, and expand the institutional aid programs in Titles III and V that help low-resourced institutions with high percentages of low-income students provide the services such students need to succeed. 

In addition, NAICU joined more than 100 organizations on a letter signed by the Double Pell Coalition that also prioritizes a request to increase the Pell Grant award maximum to $13,000. 

Finally, as a member of the Student Aid Alliance (SAA) Steering Committee, NAICU helped craft and is a lead signatory on a funding request letter written on behalf of the more than 40 associations that work together to advocate for increased funding for the federal student aid programs. 

Repeating the funding priorities for private, nonprofit colleges across multiple communications reinforces with Congress the importance of the federal student aid programs to the students who attend these institutions.