Higher Ed Policy Roundup: Vol. 10 - Issue 1

This Week In Washington

This week, the Education Department’s (ED) Accountability in Higher Education and Access through Demand-driven Workforce Pell (AHEAD) Committee reconvened to discuss the implementation of the accountability provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Negotiators reviewed ED’s draft regulatory proposal, which creates a new transparency framework called the Student Tuition and Transparency System (STATS) and a new earnings-based accountability metric. This metric would apply to all institutional sectors and program types.

Additionally, negotiators discussed reporting requirements for schools and how the accountability metric would be calculated. According to ED, about 650,000 students attend a program that would fail the proposed accountability test.

For the first time since 2020, ED resumed garnishing wages from federal student loan borrowers in default. The agency said roughly 1,000 borrowers should expect notices starting this week, with the number of notices likely to increase each month.

News You Can Use

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) developed a one-page brief to help campus leaders with upcoming changes to federal student loan programs. The brief highlights potential institutional challenges and provides relevant resources.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and American University’s Postsecondary Education and Economics Research Center published a report on how upcoming federal loan caps may affect graduate borrowers. They found that students in high-cost professional programs, like law, may be most affected by the loan caps if their credit score is below 670 – which would make it challenging to secure private loans without a co-signer.

Higher Ed Dive published the article “What 3 credit rating agencies forecast for higher ed in 2026.” Each outlook includes concern about political pressure, a potential shrinking pipeline of students, and increased competition for students.

Recent Legislation

There were no relevant student-aid related bills recently introduced for consideration by the 119th Congress (2025-26).