Booker Leads Colleagues in Urging Department of Education to Reverse Guidance Restricting Student Civic Engagement

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with seven of his Senate Democratic colleagues, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon urging her to rescind the Department's guidance that restricts students from participating in nonpartisan civic engagement through the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program and limits the distribution of voter registration materials on college campuses.

The senators noted that a statute under the Higher Education Act explicitly allows part-time employment through "work in the public interest for a Federal, State, or local public agency or private nonprofit organization," which includes nonpartisan voter registration activities, and that the Department itself affirmed this interpretation in February 2024.

They also highlighted that the guidance's restrictions on distributing voter registration forms contradict federal law, which requires institutions to "make a good faith effort to distribute a mail voter registration form…to each student enrolled…physically in attendance…and to make such forms widely available to students." They warned that limiting distribution could prevent eligible students from registering to vote.

The Senators wrote: "The Department's reinterpretation of these statutory requirements will unjustly limit students' opportunities to engage in nonpartisan civic participation and undermine decades of bipartisan recognition that encouraging voter registration is a core public interest function of higher education institutions."

The Senators concluded by urging the Department to issue new guidance confirming that funds can be used for on-campus voter registration activities and for off-campus voter registration and civic participation activities when the employer is a government agency or a nonpartisan nonprofit organization.

The letter was cosigned by U.S. Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Andy Kim (D-NJ).

To read the full text of the letter, click here.