Politico: House panel approves bills cracking down on federal student aid fraud

A House panel advanced bills Tuesday aimed at clamping down on fraud in the federal student aid system.

The House Education and Workforce Committee approved legislation to prevent fraudulent actors from accessing federal student aid money and to prioritize a literacy effort known as the science of reading with a rare show of bipartisan support.

But approval of other bills aimed at curbing so-called sexually oriented material in classrooms, verifying identity on student financial aid forms and overhauling a federal scholarship program broke down along predictable party lines.

The advancing of the bills came one day after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to establish a task force to eliminate fraud in federal programs. The package of bills on fraud comes after the Education Department said last year it uncovered nearly $90 million in student aid fraud and began implementing enhanced identity verification to combat the problem.

Two of the bills are aimed at stopping so-called ghost students, fraudsters who have used fake or stolen identities to apply for college and student aid, from cashing in on federal funds.

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