#DoublePell Bill Would Put College Within Reach for Millions of Students June 21, 2021 Section 1 ContentLawmakers in the House and Senate last week introduced legislation to double the Pell Grant, expand eligibility for the program to Dreamers, and make a number of other changes to the program.The Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act, introduced by Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) in the Senate and Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) in the House, would double the maximum grant to $13,000 over five years and shift funding for the program to fully mandatory. Currently, Pell funding is a mix of mandatory and discretionary funding, which means it is never stable.ACE President Ted Mitchell praised the bill in a statement Wednesday.“Nearly 90 percent of Pell Grant dollars go to students with a family income below $50,000, and they are especially critical for students of color,” Mitchell said. “Pell Grants help nearly seven million low- and moderate-income students attend and complete college annually, but the purchasing power of the grant is at an all-time low. Nearly 50 years ago, the maximum grant covered more than three-quarters of the cost of attending a four-year public college. Now, thanks to state budget cuts, it covers less than one-third of that cost.”A broad coalition of nearly 1,200 organizations, including almost 900 colleges and universities, sent a letter to Congress in March requesting that lawmakers double the Pell Grant. ACE and other higher education associations also made the request part of a larger list of priorities to congressional appropriators. The Biden administration has asked for a $400 increase in the maximum Pell Grant in their FY 2022 budget along with an additional $1,400 increase in one of their infrastructure proposals. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona presented the president’s budget at a hearing by the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, where Murray also discussed the double Pell bill. Section 2 Content Section 3 Content Section 4 Content Section 5 Content Section 6 Content Button Content Rail Content 1Double the Pell Grant: Read the request from nearly 1,200 organizationsDownload the letter Rail Content 2 Rail Content 3 Related News October 10, 2025 ACE and 37 other higher education associations submitted comments this week urging the Department of Education to significantly revise—or withdraw entirely—its proposed overhaul of federal admissions data collection. Read More News October 10, 2025 ACE, Other Groups Push Back on Trump Administration’s Admissions Data Collection Plan News October 10, 2025 ACE and other higher education associations are asking Congress to reverse the Department of Education’s decision to terminate FY 2025 discretionary grant funding for MSIs. 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