Summary of Trump FY2018 Budget Proposal

On May 23, 2017, President Trump released his Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Budget proposal. Although the President’s budget proposal is just that, a proposal or blueprint, with most items requiring Congressional action to implement, the policy preferences described or implied therein may impact the broader higher education legislative debate.

Included in the FY2018 proposal are changes that, if enacted, would impact students and graduates:

• Public Service Loan Forgiveness – eliminate the PSLF program.
• Income-Driven Repayment Plans – create a single income-driven repayment plan. New borrowers would pay 12.5 percent of their discretionary income. Undergraduate borrowers would be eligible for loan forgiveness after 15 years, while graduate students would be eligible after 30 years. 
• Perkins Loans – allow the Perkins Loan program to end in September 2017, eliminating a source of low-interest campus-based loans.

Download a summary of the President’s budget proposal here. (this link no longer exists as the original article has been removed)

AccessLex Institute released a statement opposing all proposals contained in the budget that would adversely impact law students, as well as other graduate and professional students.

The next step in the process is for the House and Senate budget committees to develop their own budget resolutions. From there the appropriations committees will allocate specific funding levels for each federal program. The deadline for Congress to pass its spending bills is September 30, 2017.