Last week, Representatives David Joyce (R-OH)  and Derek Kilmer (D-WA), the co-chairs of the Congressional Independent Colleges Caucus, introduced the Pell Plus Act of 2023, which encourages on-time baccalaureate degree completion by providing Pell students who graduate in four years the same amount of federal aid as those who take six years to complete their degrees. 

The Pell Plus Act takes a student-centered approach to encourage completion and reduce student loan debt by establishing a partnership between colleges, students, and the federal government to provide a Pell Grant bonus to low-income students in their third and fourth years who are on a path to on-time completion. 

Pell Plus has two major components: 

• Students in their third or fourth year who are on track to graduate in four years would be given access to an extra “bonus” Pell Grant – essentially, accelerating the amount they would have already been eligible to receive had they taken longer to graduate. 
• Participating colleges and universities would then match any Pell Grant bonus amount awarded to a student dollar-for-dollar. 

The net effect of this proposal would be to triple the amount of Pell Grant assistance during the final two years of study for students who are on track to on-time completion. Using the current Pell Grant maximum of $7,395, the nation’s lowest income students would receive an annual grant of $22,185 to help them get over the finish line sooner and with less debt. 

In a statement that was included in the press release issued by Rep. Joyce, NAICU President Barbara Mistick, said she looks forward to working with Reps. Joyce and Kilmer to “perfect this legislation as it moves through the legislative process.”  She also pointed out that the Pell Plus proposal “addresses student debt on the front end by reducing the need to take out additional student loans and incentivizing on-time completion. At the back end the proposal lowers graduates’ total debt. It increases institutional ‘skin in the game’ and continues the federal commitment to investing in our nation’s neediest students.

A bill such as this would most likely be considered as part of a comprehensive Higher Education Act reauthorization.