College for All Act of 2025
Key claim: The College for All Act of 2025 would eliminate tuition and required fees at community colleges and for working- and middle-class students at four-year public and tribal institutions, permanently expand and revise Pell Grants (including eligibility for Dreamers), and reauthorize TRIO and GEAR UP.
Abstract
(HR3543 · 119th Congress) College for All Act of 2025 This bill establishes measures to expand access to higher education, including by eliminating tuition and required fees for eligible students, revising the Federal Pell Grant program, and reauthorizing certain programs to assist students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Specifically, the bill provides funding to enable states and tribal colleges and universities, through a federal-state partnership, to eliminate tuition and required fees for (1) all students at community colleges and two-year tribal colleges and universities, and (2) working- and middle-class students at four-year public institutions of higher education and tribal colleges and universities. The bill provides funding to enable private, nonprofit historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions to eliminate tuition and required fees for eligible students. The bill permanently reauthorizes and otherwise revises the Federal Pell Grant program by providing funding to increase the maximum award for each eligible student, increasing the duration limit for the use of Pell Grants, allowing students to use their awards to cover living and nontuition expenses, and expanding eligibility to Dreamer students (i.e., students who have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status and who entered the United States before the age of 16) and students with other immigration statuses. Further, the bill requires the Department of Education to award grants to eligible states and tribal colleges and universities for improving student outcomes. The bill reauthorizes through FY2035 the Federal TRIO Programs and reauthorizes through FY2029 the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. Latest action (2025-05-21): Referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Why this matters
The College for All Act is a large-scale federal proposal to restructure public higher-ed financing by combining tuition-free community college, tuition elimination for most students at four-year public and tribal institutions, permanent Pell expansion (including for Dreamers), and reauthorization of core access programs like TRIO and GEAR UP. For students and borrowers it would substantially reduce out-of-pocket cost and broaden aid eligibility; for institutions it would create a new federal-state matching relationship shaping enrollment, revenue, and program requirements. Status is introduced and referred to multiple House committees, so tracking is important as related Pell and access bills move in parallel.