Faith-based schools can keep federal aid for religion programs.
S. 5573 — Religious Education Fairness Act · Filed by James Lankford (R-OK) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 29, 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
This bill lets religion, faith work, and philosophy programs at faith-based schools keep federal loans and grants. Normally, federal rules strip aid from programs where graduates earn very little. This bill stops that rule for these programs at faith-based schools. Students in these programs get federal aid even if the field pays low wages.
Who it affects
Students in religion, faith work, and philosophy programs at faith-based schools keep access to federal loans and grants. Faith-based schools that run these programs also benefit. Students in the same programs at non-faith schools may face other rules.
One thing to notice
The bill makes one set of rules for faith-based schools and a different set for other schools. The same program gets treated in two ways based on the school's faith ties.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Sep 29, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 29, 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 loans and grants — Money the government gives or lends to help students pay for school.
- federal rules — Laws made by the federal government that everyone must follow.
- faith-based schools — Schools run by or tied to a church or faith group.
- graduates — People who finish school and earn a degree.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (905 characters) on Oct 9, 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.
“Faith-based schools can keep federal aid for religion programs.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5573/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.