Prior to 2018, families with high-school aged children who were applying to college (and thus filling out the Federal Application for Federal Student Aid) were required to report income and assets to determine aid eligibility. Typically, income was assessed at 22-47%, and assets were assessed at 5.65% per year, and families like ours with huge nest eggs were basically ineligible for aid.
One way around this problem was to qualify for either the auto-zero Expected Family Contribution (if family income is below $25k, you owe nothing) or the Simplified Needs Test (income <50k, your assets are excluded). The problem for us is that in order to qualify for either of these options, your family must file either a 1040EZ or a 1040A. Since we own rental properties, we have to file a schedule E every year, which means we have to file a 1040. This means we can't qualify for either of the simplified FAFSA forms.
Then the Republicans passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in late 2017, which did a whole bunch of shitty thing like add 2.3 trillion dollars to the national debt, repeal the individual mandate in the ACA, give a giant tax break to the most profitable corporations, and open ANWR to oil drilling. As a side effect, it got rid of the 1040EZ and the 1040A. They don't exist anymore. There is only the new 1040.
Suddenly, the requirement to file a 1040EZ or 1040A in order to qualify for the simplified FAFSA is impossible to meet for the 2019 tax year. To my knowledge, there have been no efforts to update the FAFSA rules to reflect this change. So while it's possible that the FAFSA just stops using the auto-zero EFC and simplified needs test (which would be a huge hidden FU to poor people), I think it's more likely that the FAFSA folks just drop the 1040EZ/A requirement entirely, and rely solely on the income requirements.
This means that a typical mustachian retiree with a million dollar nest egg, low expenses, and a handful of rental properties will suddenly be eligible for significantly reduced college costs. Getting your AGI down under $50k is pretty easy, even for a large family, if your mortgage is paid off and you're living off of previous Roth IRA contributions (which come out tax and penalty free), taxable brokerage accounts (which are mostly return of principal) and rents (which are offset by depreciation).
Did the Republicans just send my kids to college for free?