Renewed almost without question since establishment in 1958, the Federal Perkins Loan Program — providing loans that aid payment in higher education — was unexpectedly allowed to lapse on September 30, 2015. Perkins is reported as the “government’s oldest student loan program.”

H.R. 3594, which would have renewed the loans program, passed the House but failed to be brought to the floor in the Senate. The defeat is accredited to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) who has regularly expressed the belief that specifically eliminating the Perkins Loan could streamline the government’s student loan programs.

Alexander was elected as chair of the Senate Health, Education and Labor committee in January 2015 and immediately pointed out why such streamlining is necessary. About half of the 20 million American families with students in college, he said on the Senate floor, “have a federal grant or loan to help pay for college.” The problem, he said, is that the “Federal application form for grants and loans for colleges is 108 questions.”

That’s why, Alexander continued, at another committee meeting over a year ago he was impressed upon hearing “four witnesses say we only needed two questions to answer 95% of the information we needed to know,” to make a student grant or loan feasible. Instead of the Perkins Loan, Alexander proposed the two-question application recommended known as “Fast Track” in S. 108.

With the Senate defeat, Rep. Mike Bishop (R-MI8), sponsor of the Perkins renewal bill, said in a press release, “Congress should be making it easier, not harder, for students to make their college goals a reality. That includes making college more affordable and simplifying our financial aid system for every American.”