Major higher education associations are pressing Congress to advance the College Transparency Act, which would lift a longstanding ban on federal collection of student-level data. The Senate HELP committee is set to consider the bipartisan measure, which supporters say would improve public information on college outcomes—especially for students not captured in existing datasets. Under current structures, the Department of Education collects aggregate and institution-level outcomes, with key tools like College Scorecard relying heavily on students who received federal financial aid. Supporters argue that means roughly one-third of students—those who do not take federal aid—are effectively excluded from key reporting. If enacted, the bill would create a new database within the National Center for Education Statistics, overturning the Higher Education Act’s 2008 restriction on student-level data. The measure is framed as a privacy-protective solution to data gaps that affect accreditation, research, and student decision-making.