April 11, 2024 5:40 a.m.

On Wednesday, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wrote to the CEO of General Dynamics seeking answers on the company’s role in what they called, the “bungled launch” of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

In that letter, the senators noted that despite General Dynamics receiving a $121.8 million contract to modernize the process, the new FAFSA has been riddled with technical issues, drastically hindering students seeking financial aid.

The senators wrote, “These failures are hurting students. Colleges and universities are beginning to receive financial aid information on students after months of delays”. They continued, “But millions of students are in limbo and there are growing concerns that the FAFSA problems will disproportionately affect traditionally underserved communities, particularly Black, Latino, first-generation and low-income students”.

Wyden’s release said General Dynamics received the contract to modernize the FAFSA system following the changes made in the FAFSA Simplification Act in 2022. Among the goals of the modernization project, General Dynamics promised, “the new system will improve the overall customer experience, as well as deliver cost savings and operational flexibility to quickly scale in response to any regulations or requirements”.

The letter said, “These promises were not kept; indeed, it now appears that your efforts to date have been a near-total failure and the FAFSA problems caused by this failure are harming millions of students and hundreds of colleges”.

With delays affecting millions of students that depend on FAFSA aid, the senators asked the company to respond to their questions about the FAFSA rollout no later than April 23rd.