Last week U.S. Rep. Paulsen (R-MN) introduced legislation to express the sense of Congress that the federal Pell Grant program should be a high funding priority.

House Resolution 5198 (HR 5198) was introduced at a time when the Pell Grant currently faces an estimated $5 billion budgetary shortfall that may threaten to reduce awards to students.

The shortfall is due to a dramatic increase in the number of students served by the program. This year the program is estimated to to provided aid to 8.3 million undergraduate students.

The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor for further consideration.