Sen. Bill Cassidy opened an inquiry into college readiness, sending letters to 35 selective institutions seeking six years of math‑placement data after a UC San Diego internal report flagged rising remedial math enrollments. Cassidy, chair of the Senate HELP Committee, requested placement tables from fall 2019 through fall 2025, descriptions of referenced courses, and admissions testing policies, pressing whether colleges still require SAT/ACT math scores. The probe connects K–12 learning recovery, pandemic disruptions, grade inflation and test‑optional admissions to downstream remediation at selective universities. Colleges now face scrutiny on how placement decisions are made and whether admissions changes have shifted remediation burdens onto institutions.