Exclusive: Sen. Jim Banks Unveils Bill Banning Non-Citizens from Pell Grants



Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images

by Olivia Rondeau 23 Sep 2026

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) has introduced a new piece of legislation that would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require that recipients of Pell Grants be U.S. citizens, a move the Republican said would “put American students first.”

Unveiled on Wednesday morning, the “Pell for Americans Act” simply states that the federally funded aid grant should only go to American undergraduates — not foreigners.

Despite efforts to restrict eligibility for non-citizens in the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill, several classes, including refugees, asylees, immigration parolees, Cuban-Haitian entrants, and “conditional permanent residents,” remain eligible.

Just this February, the Hill reported that the Pell program “is in financial difficulties with a projected shortfall of billions of dollars that could lead to trouble for students as soon as 2028.”

By the end of this fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the Pell Grant program will be $5 billion in debt. Over the next ten years, that number jumps to between $104 billion and $132 billion if nothing is done about the issue.

The projections come even after lawmakers gave the program a one-time boost of $10.5 billion in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.

Banks’ office told Breitbart News that his bill is actually modeled after a piece of legislation originally introduced by House Democrats in 1994 that had the same stated goal of amending the Higher Education Act of 1965 to direct Pell funds to Americans only.

“In 2026, Socialist-aligned Democrats fight harder for illegal aliens than their own constituents, but back in 1994, they led a bill that would ensure taxpayer-funded Pell Grants are reserved for American students only,” the senator said in an exclusive statement.

“American taxpayers have no business subsidizing the college tuitions of foreign nationals, and three decades later, I’m proud to reintroduce this commonsense bill to put American students first,” the Indiana Republican added.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...s-pell-grants/