February 5, 2025

With the start of a new Congress and a new Presidential Administration, now would be a great time to spread the word on ACCT's Latest Action in Washington (LAW) Alerts. Please encourage your fellow trustees, presidents, and colleagues to stay up to date about legislation that affects their community colleges by joining the LAW Alert network. To join, simply register here. 

Publisher's Note: LAW Alert will take a hiatus for the week of February 10th during the National Legislative Summit. Please make sure to follow our NLS daily recaps.

Leading the news this week: 

The Trump Administration is Drafting an Executive Order to Shut Down the Department of Education
Based on anonymous sources, the President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order impacting the Department of Education. While the details are in the works, reports state that plans include ending or transferring functions of the Department which are not written into statute. Title IV programs of the Higher Education Act , such as the Pell Grant are statutorily linked to the Department of Education.

While this executive order is not designed to directly terminate the Department of Education, a feature of the order is said to have the Secretary to establish a plan intended to end the Department. Sources have stated that the Trump administration will likely wait until the confirmation for nominee Linda McMahon to issue the order; her confirmation hearing as not yet been scheduled.

It is important to note that terminating the Department of Education cannot be done via an executive order, instead shutting down the Department requires an act of Congress. However, President Trump can reduce staff and end programs that are not written into statute.

Latest News in Higher Education

Updates to FAFSA

Yesterday,  the Department of Education published the 2026-2027 Free Application of Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in the Federal Register, the first step in the FAFSA form development. Currently,  the Department has said that the FAFSA form is scheduled to launch on October 1, 2025, as is now mandated by the law the FAFSA Deadline Act. In addition, this new form will be updated to reflect the gender identification potion to only include the options "male" and "female", therefore eliminating the "nonbinary" option that was featured in previous FAFA forms.

Department of Education Will Enforce the 2020 Title IX Rule

As of January 31st, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights has reverted to enforcing the 2020 Title IX Rule, which narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and altered how schools respond to sexual misconduct, namely victims of sexual harassment and assault will have to face those they are accusing in a live hearing. Moreover, this rule undoes the 2024 Biden Title IX Rule which offered protections to LGBTQIA students on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, and sex characteristics. The 2024 Title IX Rule was vacated by a federal district court on January 9, 2025 ; in addition, on January 20, 2025 President Trump signed the executive order Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, which contradicted the former vacated Rule. All these events served to create a path for the Trump administration's 2020 Title IX Rule. 

Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment Completers Lists Have Been Submitted

Now that the Financial Value Transparency (FVT) and Gainful Employment (GE) Completers Lists have been submitted, the next step is to send the data to a different Federal agency to calculate median earnings information. Meanwhile, the Department of Education has reopened the reporting process for debt and debt reporting until February 18, 2025. This window allows institutions who could not meet the January 15, 2025 deadline to complete debt reporting. This also allows the Department to meet the goal of making these data available this Spring. 

ICYMI: Unveiling of the 2025 Community College Legislative Priorities Webinar

The government relations staff of ACCT and AACC discussed the 2025 community college legislative priorities. This session provided a preview of the discussions that will take place at the National Legislative Summit (NLS) and is intended to help NLS attendees prepare for the meetings with their Members of Congress. The session offered community college leaders, students, and other supporters information on the key issues that we will be advocating for in the 2025 calendar year.  Here is the link of the recording and the link of the presentation slides.

Grant Opportunities

Please review the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education's Community College webpage for new grants community colleges are eligible for.

• February 12, 2025 - Institutes for Higher Education Faculty and K-12 Educators
• February 9-12, 2025 - National Legislative Summit

Outreach Efforts

Is your institution meeting or hosting an event with federal elected officials?

We created a Congressional Contact Form that will help us track outreach efforts of community college leaders across our membership. By filling out the form, you are better informing ACCT's advocacy efforts and our advocacy team is able to continue those conversations with congressional staff in DC. 

ACCT NOW is the go-to resource for issues affecting community colleges. Our new website features original reporting and research, as well as of-the-moment legislative updates. ACCT NOW also includes articles, reports, and research from outside sources that benefit the ACCT community. Read the Latest Articles on ACCT NOW:

Have a Question?

Contact us with any questions or concerns about public policy and ACCT's advocacy on behalf of two-year colleges and two-year college trustees. ACCT's Latest Action in Washington alerts are sent to interested ACCT members to keep you up to date on important legislative activities that impact community colleges.

If you no longer wish to receive ACCT's Latest Action in Washington alerts, reply to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. For more information about ACCT's advocacy services, visit acct.org/advocacy

Spread the Word.

Please encourage your fellow trustees, presidents and colleagues to stay up to date about legislation that affects their community colleges by joining the Latest Action in Washington (LAW) Alert network. To join, simply register here. 

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