Federal student aid tied to job outcomes for most programs.
S. 5021 — Protecting Students from Worthless Degrees Act · Filed by Jeff Merkley (D-OR) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill sets rules for college and job-training programs that get federal student aid. Programs must show graduates can find jobs and pay back loans. Programs must prepare graduates for licenses to work in states where the school recruits students. Schools must tell students when a program might lose federal aid. Programs that fail these rules lose federal funding for three years.
Who it affects
Students get protection: programs must prepare them for real jobs and licenses. Schools lose federal aid money for programs that burden graduates with too much debt. This shifts responsibility from students to schools.
One thing to notice
The bill requires the IRS and Social Security to share earnings data each year. This checks if graduates are earning enough money.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Democrats.
- Jul 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 16, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- federal student aid — Money the government gives or lends to help students pay for college.
- federal funding — Money the government provides to support schools and programs.
- earnings data — Information about how much money people make from their jobs.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (24,537 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-17.
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