Shaheen, Collins Urge Education Secretary to Immediately Release TRIO Upward Bound Grants to Current Recipients

**The bipartisan push follows reports that Upward Bound programs have yet to receive funding due for the coming program year**

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, and Susan Collins (R-ME), Chair of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, wrote to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon yesterday urging the Department of Education to immediately release TRIO Upward Bound grants—which fund programs preparing high school students of disadvantaged backgrounds for attending college—to current grant recipients. The Senators’ request comes as Upward Bound programs have yet to receive the funding they’ve been promised for the coming program year. 

The Senators wrote, in part: “Given that current recipients of Upward Bound grants were already successfully awarded their five-year grants from the Department of Education in 2022, Upward Bound programs should have the assurance that they will receive this funding for the fourth year of their grants. This delay in grant distribution, as well as a lack of information or guidance from the agency, is causing extreme uncertainty for Upward Bound programs across the country.” 

They continued: “For nearly 60 years, Upward Bound programs have given generations of students the support they need to help succeed in higher education and beyond. [...] The current delay in funding distribution is creating an unnecessary and existential crisis for these critical programs and the students they serve.” 

The Senators concluded: “We urge you to immediately provide Upward Bound programs with the federal funding they’ve been promised.” 

Click here to view the bipartisan letter. 

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