No Aid for Ghost Students Act of 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, in a speech given by Frederick Douglass in 1894, he said: ``Education . . . [is] the light only by which men can be free. To deny education . . . is one of the greatest crimes against human nature [because] it is to deny them the means of freedom and the rightful pursuit of happiness.''

Mr. Speaker, this is why the issue of fraud in our financial aid system is so pernicious. Taxpayer dollars are finite, and each dollar that is defrauded represents another lost opportunity for the students who need it the most.

Ghost student fraud is a growing problem in higher education. Bad actors use fake or stolen IDs to enroll in classes, collect the refundable portion of the student aid, and then disappear, leaving taxpayers on the hook and denying real students an education.

Students and taxpayers deserve a student aid system that supports opportunity, not fraud. This bill builds on the good work already done by the Trump administration to protect taxpayer dollars and help safeguard the integrity of the student aid system by ensuring Federal aid goes to real students.

The No Aid for Ghost Students Act takes a straightforward approach: identify suspicious student aid applications and ensure these applicants are who they say they are before dollars go out the door.

The bill requires the Department of Education to use an identity fraud detection system to screen and assess each FAFSA application for fraud risk.

Just as importantly, the bill requires schools to verify the student's identity for applications flagged by the Department of Education for identity fraud risk before disbursing Federal student aid. This is a commonsense safeguard to ensure taxpayer dollars are kept out of the hands of fraudsters.

The verification methods in the bill are practical. Institutions may verify identity through in-person verification or a variety of other secure methods and must keep a record of each successful verification.

The legislation also requires the Department to establish guidelines for verification procedures, helping ensure schools have a consistent framework for carrying out these straightforward processes.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has made significant progress in combating student aid fraud. Last year, the Department blocked more than $1 billion in attempted fraud. In April, the Department implemented a new identity fraud detection tool directly into the FAFSA form, which blocked $60 million in the first 2 weeks. However, these safeguards, while effective, are not guaranteed to remain in place.

Under the Biden administration, we saw verification safeguards rolled back under false pretenses of equity and fairness, opening the door for fraudsters. This legislation addresses that vulnerability by putting fraud protections where they should be--in law.

Finally, the bill also promotes transparency and oversight. It requires the Department to provide Congress with a written description of the fraud detection system, notify Congress of substantial changes, and provide annual reports on the system's use and effectiveness.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense bill.

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