2022 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 49
BY SENATOR FIELDS
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To express the legislative intent with regard to the use of the term financial aid to exclude
student loans and federal work study programs.
WHEREAS, the legislature passed Senate Bill 148 in the 2021 Regular Legislative
Session, which was signed into law by Governor Edwards as Act 457 of the 2021 Regular
Legislative Session to establish the M.J. Foster Promise Program; and
WHEREAS, the M.J. Foster Promise Program was established to reduce the financial
barriers for students, who are twenty-one years of age or older, to earn both short-term
industry-based credentials and associate degrees in high-demand, high-wage jobs; and
WHEREAS, the M.J. Foster Promise Program was also established with a capped
total investment of ten million five hundred thousand dollars annually; and
WHEREAS, the M.J. Foster Promise Program was enacted to provide financial
assistance awards to help defray the costs of a postsecondary education for adults who have
been out of high school for several years and have realized the need to further their
education; and
WHEREAS, the M.J. Foster Promise Program requires such students to first utilize
federal, state, and institutional financial aid prior to utilizing the program award to ensure
the funding of the program assists a maximum number of students; and
WHEREAS, the term "financial aid" is sometimes broadly defined to include monies
from federal student loans and the federal work study program; and
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WHEREAS, the purpose of the M.J. Foster Promise Program was to remove financial
barriers to education and it was never the intent that such students should be required to
incur debt through student loans or have their awards reduced by the amounts earned through
their labor funded by federal work study dollars; and
WHEREAS, R.S. 24:177 provides that the Louisiana Legislature may express the
intended meaning of a law in a duly adopted concurrent resolution.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Louisiana Legislature does hereby
express its intent that the term "financial aid", as used in R.S. 17:3047, et seq., shall not be
interpreted to include monies from student loans or the federal work study program.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
commissioner of higher education, the chairman of the Louisiana Board of Regents, the
president of the Louisiana State University System, the president of the Southern University
System, and the president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System.
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