{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://owens.house.gov/posts/rep-owens-no-aid-for-ghost-students-act-passes-committee", "Rep. Owens \u2018No Aid for Ghost Students Act\u2019 Passes Committee", "2026-03-17", "2026", "2026-03", "Republican", "House", "UT", "Burgess Owens", "O000086", "owens.house.gov", "owens", "https://owens.house.gov/press", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Congressman Burgess Owens\u2019 (UT-04) No Aid for Ghost Students Act passed the Education and Workforce Committee this afternoon. The bill aims to prevent bad actors from submitting fraudulent FAFSA Applications under stolen or fabricated identities by amending the Higher Education Act and requiring the Department of Education and institutions of higher education to take steps to combat this fraud.\n\n\u201cThe No Aid for Ghost Students Act is common-sense legislation that ensures federal dollars aren\u2019t flowing to professional fraudsters.\u201d Representative Owens said. \u201cFederal aid needs to go to those students who need it most, and every cent that is defrauded represents a lost opportunity for students in need and a serious offense to the American taxpayer.\u201d\n\nThe bill would specifically require the Department of Education to:\n\nUse an identity fraud detection system to review each application\n\nNotify the applicant if their FAFSA was flagged as suspicious\n\nVerify the applicant before federal student aid is disbursed\n\nEstablish guidelines for identity verification procedures\n\nReport to Congress within 30 days what they have done to implement the above systems\n\nRequires a yearly audit of the system, paired with a report to Congress of the fraud identification system and its effectiveness\n\nYou can find the full text here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://owens.house.gov/posts/rep-owens-no-aid-for-ghost-students-act-passes-committee"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7253158837556839, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}