PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Mar 27, 2019
Understanding the True Cost of College Act of 2019
This bill requires standardized financial aid terminology and offer forms.
The Department of Education (ED) must develop standard terminology and a format for financial aid offer forms based on recommendations from representatives of certain groups, including students, veterans, and institutions of higher education (IHEs).
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
The consumer-friendly form must include specified details and disclosures, including
the estimated cost of attendance,
financial aid that does not need to be repaid,
the net price that a student or family is estimated to pay,
work-study employment opportunities,
loans the IHE recommends for the student for the academic period covered by the offer,
deadlines and the process for accepting financial aid,
default rates,
the percentage of students who have student loans and the median debt at graduation for students,
private loans,
scholarships, and
the terms and conditions of financial aid.
ED must (1) test the form with representatives of students, students' families, IHEs, secondary school and postsecondary counselors, and nonprofit consumer groups; and (2) use the results to develop the final form.
Each IHE that participates in federal student aid programs must (1) use the standard form when offering financial aid to students, and (2) use the standard terminology and definitions developed by ED for all communications related to financial aid offers.
People & committees
Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA] · R–IA
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Dec 5, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.888 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.888 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.888 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.888 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.