Owens’ ‘No Aid for Ghost Students Act’ Passes House. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Burgess Owens’ (UT-04) No Aid for Ghost Students Act has passed the House of Representatives with a 249-172 vote.

“Taxpayers deserve confidence that every dollar spent by the federal government is protected from waste, fraud, and abuse. When fraudsters exploit federal student aid programs, taxpayers foot the bill, and legitimate students lose out.

“The Trump Administration has already implemented measures that prevented more than $1 billion in fraudulent student aid payments, but those safeguards are not guaranteed to remain in place. The No Aid for Ghost Students Act makes those protections permanent, helping ensure that federal student aid goes to real students working to further their education—not scammers gaming the system.”

Rep. Burgess Owens 

“Fraudsters have stolen billions of taxpayer dollars from our federal student aid programs, diverting resources away from students pursuing an education. No Aid for Ghost Students Act is a common-sense solution to strengthen oversight, improve identity verification, and stop fraud before it happens—ensuring we can maintain the integrity of our federal student aid system. Every federal student aid dollar should go to a student pursuing an education, not to criminals exploiting the system.” 

Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI)

The bill would specifically require the Department of Education to:

• Use an identity fraud detection system to review each application
• Notify the applicant if their FAFSA was flagged as suspicious
• Verify the applicant before federal student aid is disbursed
• Establish guidelines for identity verification procedures
• Report to Congress within 30 days on what they have done to implement the above systems
• Requires a yearly audit of the system, paired with a report to Congress of the fraud identification system and its effectiveness  

Rep. Owens spoke in support of his bill last night as the House debated it. 

His remarks, as prepared for delivery, follow:

In a speech given by Frederick Douglass in 1894, he said that “Education… [is] the light only by which men can be free. [And] 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.” 

This is why the issue of fraud in our financial aid programs is so pernicious, because taxpayer dollars are finite, and each dollar that is defrauded represents a 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 identities to enroll in classes, collect the refundable portion of 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 being done by the Trump administration to protect taxpayer dollars and helps 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 those 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 its first two weeks. But 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.

I urge my colleagues to support this common-sense bill. Thank you.

You can find the full text of the bill here.

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