Seeking ways to fix FAFSA for Iowa’s farm kids
Last year, the Joe Biden administration oversaw the worst rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in recent memory, leaving families and students in the dark for months about financial assistance for higher education.
This preventable setback caused headaches for parents, frustrations for students, and confusion for community colleges and universities.
Following a comprehensive review of the many failures, the U.S. Government Accountability Office — a nonpartisan, independent government watchdog — identified more than 40 different technical issues that contributed to the botched rollout and found that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid prematurely skipped critical testing steps to accelerate the already delayed FAFSA launch.
As a result, some organizations concluded that approximately 300,000 high school students — if not more — did not complete the FAFSA who otherwise would have.
As a father of four, I know that applying to college can be stressful, and unnecessary complications by the federal government only make matters worse.
That’s why I voted for the FAFSA Deadline Act, which became law on Dec. 11 and officially made Oct. 1 of every year the mandatory launch date for FAFSA. This simple amendment to federal law will ensure that students and parents have ample time to consider the full cost of higher education and apply for financial assistance as needed.
While this marks an important victory for our families, the Biden administration quietly implemented a major change to decadeslong FAFSA policy amid the rollout chaos.
In an unprecedented move in July, student aid calculations would incorporate the value of assets commonly found on family farms and at family-owned businesses, unfairly targeting and disproportionately impacting Iowa farm kids.
According to Iowa College Aid, the inclusion of the value of family farms and small businesses in the FAFSA asset formula, a family earning $60,000 per year could end up paying more than $41,000 in annual college tuition expenses compared to just $7,600 under the previous and fairer standard. That discrepancy is devastating for kids in rural Iowa who deserve the same chance at pursuing higher education that their peers in urban areas do.
The dire economic situation in farm country makes this asset adjustment even more painful.
Over the last few years, our farmers and producers have faced significant declines in net farm income, low commodity prices, inflation, and restricted export markets.
Counting assets — like farmland and equipment that cannot be easily liquidated — against farm families when applying for FAFSA only adds fuel to the fire.
To right this wrong, I teamed up with House Agriculture Committee chairman G.T. Thompson (R-Pennsylvania), Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Tracey Mann (R-Kansas) to introduce legislation — the Family Farm and Small Business Exemption Act — to exempt the value of farm and business assets and equipment, which is a long-standing policy.
Iowa is the breadbasket to our country and world, and it is wrong to punish our producers and their kids for feeding and fueling our nation.
On a separate, yet equally important topic for family farms and small businesses, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) and I recently led more than 200 of our colleagues in introducing the Death Tax Repeal Act.
The death tax is an egregious double tax that unfairly targets American family farms and small businesses and directly threatens long-held farming traditions in rural Iowa and across the country.
It is ridiculous that the federal government sends grieving families a massive tax bill when a loved one passes away.
This legislation — which enjoys support from more than 230 organizations — would permanently repeal the federal death tax, put an end to this double taxation, help our farmers and small business owners pass their businesses onto the next generation, and ensure that we can keep our family traditions alive across America.
About 95 percent of small businesses, farms, and ranches in our country are owned by individuals and families, and our bill would enable these multigenerational businesses to continue to support their families without having to pay a devastating tax on the death of a family member.
By permanently repealing the death tax, our Death Tax Repeal Act will offer financial relief when it’s most needed and ensure that our families, farmers, and small businesses can keep more of their hard-earned money — just as it should be.
Representing the second largest agriculture-producing district in the nation, I’ll always be a strong voice for our farmers, producers, and their families in Congress.
This op-ed was originally published in the Northwest Iowa Review on March 4, 2025.