# Plain Language Summary: No More D.C. Waste Act

This bill changes how the federal government handles unused money that it gives to Washington D.C. for a tuition assistance program. Currently, if D.C. doesn't spend all of its federal tuition funding in a given year, that leftover money can be carried over and used in future years. This bill would eliminate that practice. Starting in fiscal year 2026, any federal tuition money that D.C. doesn't spend by the end of the year would simply disappear—it couldn't be used later. The idea behind this is to prevent money from sitting unused and to encourage D.C. to spend its full allocation each year or lose it.

The bill specifically targets D.C.'s tuition assistance programs, which help residents pay for college at both public and private schools. The change affects two programs: one for students attending public schools and another for private school students. By removing the language that allows unused funds to be "available until expended," the bill creates a strict use-it-or-lose-it deadline each fiscal year.

To keep track of how the money is being used, the bill also requires D.C.'s Chief Financial Officer to submit annual reports to Congress starting in 2025. These reports must show how many students received assistance, the average amount each student got, how much money went unspent (if any), and how much leftover money from previous years was still sitting around. Essentially, Congress wants more visibility into whether D.C. is efficiently using the federal tuition funds it receives or if money is piling up unused.