A bill establishing a new deadline for you to fill out the FAFSA paperwork for financial aid for college was written by one of your members of Congress and it passed the House on Friday.

Rep. Erin Houchin wrote the October 1 FAFSA Deadline Act after the Biden Administration’s lackluster rollout of the latest version of the FAFSA on time last year. Current law requires the FAFSA to be available from the Department of Education to those seeking federal financial aid by January 1st each year.

The form is usually available much sooner than that, but in 2023 it was not available until late December due to technical issues and other problems with the forms online.

“I’m especially frustrated considering the Department of Education has had three years to simplify the FAFSA as Congress has dictated,” said Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN-9th) on the House floor. “This clear misplacement of priorities led the FAFSA to be delayed by three months.”

Houchin said this delay made it impossible for some families to get their FAFSA paperwork submitted on time and she ultimately blamed President Biden and his administration for the failure.

Her bill, as indicated in its title, moves that hard deadline for the FAFSA to be available up from January 1st to October 1st of the previous year, while the deadlines for those filling it out remain the same.

The bill was overwhelmingly approved with bipartisan support. The vote was nearly unanimous, with a 381-1 vote.

The concern now is timing. The bill was approved on Friday, Nov. 15, but needs to be passed by the Senate before the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3. If these steps are not accomplished by then, the bill would have to be reintroduced and passed by the new Congress again.