Student Protection and Success Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Student Protection and Success Act
This bill establishes certain consequences for institutions of higher education (IHEs) that have low student loan repayment rates or high student loan balances among their students.
Specifically, the bill makes an IHE ineligible for federal student financial aid programs for three fiscal years if only 15% or less of its students are able to start repaying the principal of their loans by specified deadlines.
Additionally, the bill creates a grant program through which the Department of Education must award grants to eligible IHEs (i.e., IHEs with a student loan repayment rate above 25%) that have a strong record of supporting low- and moderate-income students. The bill funds the grants by requiring IHEs with certain nonrepayment loan balances to make risk-sharing payments. Grants may be used to increase college access and success for the students using investments and practices such as awarding additional need-based financial aid, enhancing academic and student support services, and establishing or expanding accelerated learning opportunities.
The bill also requires the National Center for Education Statistics to collect information on student service expenditures, student service resources, and recruitment and marketing expenditures.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on March 17, 2026. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on March 17, 2026: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) introduced it on March 17, 2026, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on March 17, 2026, 224 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 224 days ago, on March 17, 2026.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers