Lawmakers Seek Updates on Status of Student Tax Disclosure Changes

February 6, 2020

The Honorable Betsy DeVos
Secretary of Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202

The Honorable Steven T. Mnuchin
Secretary of the Treasury
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20220

Dear Secretary DeVos and Secretary Mnuchin:

We write to ask you to direct appropriate agency staff to participate in monthly calls with our respective committee staffs to ensure the FUTURE Act is implemented as quickly as possible.

On December 19, 2019, the FUTURE Act was signed into law (Public Law 116-91). This legislation amended section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code which will make applying for Federal Student Aid faster and more secure by streamlining the way the Internal Revenue Service transfers relevant data to the Department of Education.

It is imperative that the implementation of the amendments to section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code and the related amendments to the Higher Education Act occur in a secure and swift fashion. These changes involve sensitive individual taxpayer information and will benefit many students, families and borrowers.

We wish to establish these calls to provide our staffs with the latest information regarding the timeline, progress, and, if applicable, any barriers regarding implementation of the new law We request that these regular updates continue until the data exchanges for all three Federal Student Aid uses outlined in the law are fully operational.

We look forward to scheduling the first call in the next two weeks, and please reach out to our staff with any questions. For the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee please contact: Lauren Davies, lauren_davies@help.senate.gov for Chairman Alexander and Bryce McKibben, bryce_mckibben@help.scnate.uov for Ranking Member Murray. For the Senate Finance Committee, please contact Chris Conlin, chris_conlin@finance.senatc.gov. for Chairman Grassley and Tiffany Smith, tiffany_smith@finance.senate.gov. for Ranking Member Wyden. Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

LAMAR ALEXANDER
Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions

PATTY MURRAY
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions

CHUCK GRASSLEY
Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance

RON WYDEN
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Finance