Federal government matches state money for free public college.
S. 5403 — Debt-Free College Act of 2026 · Filed by Brian Schatz (D-HI) · 9 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 15, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill sets up a program where the federal government gives money to states. States must invest in making public school tuition free for low-income students. It lets foreign-born students who meet certain rules get federal grants for school. The bill gives extra money to schools that serve mostly Black students and other groups. It sets aside $84 billion for the state program and $3 billion for these schools over ten years.
Who it affects
Low-income students at public schools would get free tuition. Foreign-born students who meet the rules could get federal aid. States must keep their school funding at current levels or higher. Schools that serve mostly Black students and other groups get extra money.
One thing to notice
States must spend money on schools to get federal money. This limits how states can use their own budgets.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
9 cosponsors: 9 Democrats.
- Sep 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 15, 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 grants — Money from the federal government that students do not pay back.
- tuition — Money students pay to attend school.
- low-income students — Students whose families do not have much money.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (39,549 characters) on Oct 1, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 2026-10-20.
“Federal government matches state money for free public college.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5403/simple Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.