The Federal Pell Grant Program serves as the foundation of the Federal Student Aid system, with more than 9.5 million students relying on the program to provide access to higher education in 2010-2011. It is one of the rare large federal domestic programs that has almost entirely avoided suggestions that it is ineffective or that it plays a role that would be better played by a different entity, public or private. However, the Pell Grant program is in a precarious position, given the substantial increase in the cost of the program over the past three years. There are numerous proposals and varied opinions as to how to "fix" the program with little consideration of the factors that brought the program into existence, the programmatic structure of the program, and the shifts the program has made to support the educational aspirations of all student types. In this brief, the authors examine the historical and programmatic nature of the Pell Grant program and investigate how it has come to form trends over time. Underlying the examination is the use and importance of the program to college students, with a focus on those attending community colleges. (Contains 6 figures, 10 tables and 12 notes.)