If the amendment failed, approximately 84,000 students would have lost their Pell Grants as a result of a change in the formula, and another million students might have received lower allotments.
However, the Senate rejected another amendment, the Kennedy-Collins Higher Education Funding Amendment, proposed to increase the maximum Pell Grant from $4,050 to $4,500, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. It was co-sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME).
The Kennedy-Collins amendment would have added $2.2 billion to a number of student-aid programs, including TRIO, Gear Up programs and Pell Grants.
"Our nation faces a growing crisis in higher education, because of the soaring cost of tuition in recent years, and the crisis is now far worse, because state and local budgets are in crisis too," Kennedy wrote in a statement on his Higher Education Funding Amendment.
According to Kennedy, the amendment's failure puts "over 100,000 current college students ... in danger of being forced to drop out, because of higher tuition costs and a zero increase financial aid."
Currently, Pell Grants only fund a student's undergraduate education. According to Kennedy's statement, the Kennedy-Collins amendment would also have "support[ed] graduate students in the sciences, humanities, and public interest."
Last week, the Bush administration called upon the Senate to increase the money for Pell Grants by $538 million in 2004, according to The Chronicle, well short of the amount proposed in the Kennedy-Collins amendment.
For now, maintaining the need-based formula is a "victory for students," Mary Cunningham, legislative director of the United States Student Association, told The Chronicle.
Kennedy hoped that such a victory would include more financial aid. "If you work hard, finish high school, and are accepted for admission to a college, we should guarantee that you will have the opportunity to earn a college degree," said Kennedy.
The Senate's failure to pass the amendment for increased Pell Grant spending makes the situation "the worst it's been for student-aid programs in a long time," Cynthia Littlefield, director of federal relations at the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, told The Chronicle.
"Vast numbers of students are already taking jobs to defray the costs of their education," Kennedy wrote in his statement. "Half of all college students who take part-time jobs are now working more than 25 hours a week and trying to be full time students, too."
According to The Chronicle, the amendment may still be accepted in negotiations between the Senate and the House.