Higher Ed Policy Roundup: Vol. 9 - Issue 21

On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions released its budget reconciliation legislative proposal aimed at cutting billions in funding from education programs. The proposal is largely similar to the House Education and Workforce Committee’s Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan and would:

• Eliminate the Grad PLUS Program;
• Set annual caps on borrowing at $20,500 for graduate students and $50,000 for professional students;
• Set aggregate caps on borrowing at $100,000 for graduate students and $200,000 for professional students;
• Create a new repayment plan that ties monthly payment amounts to adjusted gross income, forgives a borrower’s loan balance after 30 years of qualifying payments, and waives monthly unpaid interest;
• Sunset all income-contingent repayment (ICR) plans; and
• Sunset economic hardship and unemployment deferments.

Republican leadership has said that they hope to have a completed budget reconciliation package passed and on President Trump’s desk by the July 4th recess.

The Bipartisan Policy Center recently published a report discussing the student loan provisions in the House’s budget reconciliation package and its impact on the student loan program.

The following bill(s) have been recently introduced for consideration by the 119th Congress (2025-26):

H.R. 3711 – Protecting Our Students by Terminating Graduate Rates that Add to Debt (POST GRAD) Act [Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA-28)] would reinstate the in-school interest subsidy for graduate and professional students who borrow Federal Direct Stafford Loans. A companion bill, S. 1948, was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA).