Higher Ed Policy Roundup: Vol. 9 - Issue 6

This week, the House and Senate both took major steps to move forward a budget reconciliation bill to fund President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda. On Wednesday, the Senate Budget Committee voted 11-10 to approve a budget resolution which includes instructions for education committees to make at least $1 billion worth of cuts. On Thursday, the House Budget Committee marked up its budget resolution which instructs the Education and Workforce Committee to cut $330 billion. A point of contention between the two chambers is whether Republicans will move forward with a plan to pass one budget reconciliation bill as the House wants or a two-bill approach as the Senate wants.

On Thursday, Linda McMahon sat for her Senate confirmation hearing to lead the Education Department (ED) as Secretary. McMahon, who served as President Trump’s transition co-chair, is known for her work in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and also served on the Connecticut State Board of Education and co-founded the conservative research group America First Policy Institute. When asked by Senators from both parties about President Trump’s desire to shutter ED, she stated that she would work with Congress to downsize the Department and find ways to make it operate more efficiently. In response to a question from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program and the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to terminate federal programs, McMahan stated that she would implement PSLF “because that’s the law.”

Based on new data, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the federal Pell Grant program will face a 10-year funding shortfall between $71 billion to $111 billion after running out of reserves by the end of 2025.

The result from the Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2025 State of Higher Education Study revealed that one in four Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applicants who completed the form struggled to submit it.

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

S. 469 – Family Farm and Small Business Exemption Act [Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA)] would amend the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Simplification Act to restore the original exemption of all farmland, machinery, and other operational materials, and small businesses with fewer than 200 employees, from being declared on the FAFSA form, as initially outlined in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. A companion bill, H.R. 1131, was introduced in the House by Rep. Tracey Mann (R-KS-1).

H.R. 1176 – [Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA-11)] would clarify the clock hour requirements for certain eligible programs under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

H.R. 1090 – Truth in Tuition Act [Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA-3)] would require universities participating in federal student aid programs to provide students with tuition price models.