Welcome back to After the First 100 Days, Inside Higher Ed’s weekly roundup of news from the Hill to the Oval Office. I’m Jessica Blake, the federal policy reporter here and your host.
It’s Day 116, and we finally received all the pieces of the Republicans’ reconciliation megabill.
What is reconciliation, you might ask? It’s a complex legislative procedure that allows lawmakers to pass often-controversial measures with a simple majority, avoiding the Senate filibuster. Republicans want to cut more than $4 trillion in order to trim the deficit and pay for President Donald Trump’s political priorities like tax cuts and deportations. House Republicans have been talking about their reconciliation plans since January, and this week, we finally have a full picture of what’s on the table.
So what impact would the legislation have if passed? Higher ed experts say that it would be devastating to institutions and students and would make college harder to pay for, among other ramifications.
Here are a few key provisions to know about:
- More taxes. Wealthy private colleges could see much higher endowment taxes, though the rate depends on the value of the endowment per student.
- New levies on all colleges for royalties from intellectual property like college logos, patents and copyrighted publications.
- Massive cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, which could hurt state budgets and students.
- Caps on student loans and limits on who can qualify for the full Pell Grant.
- Fines for colleges based on their students’ unpaid federal loans.
OK, reality check: It’s very unlikely that all these measures will survive in the Senate, if the package manages to get approval from the entire House. But this shows what Republicans want to do to higher education if they can get the votes.
In Other News: Education Secretary Linda McMahon made some eyebrow-raising comments about college accreditors this week. In two interviews, she suggested that regional accreditors still exist, despite a 2019 policy change, and accused the American Bar Association of being a monopoly. You can read more on her comments here.
And, as the Trump administration and Congress eye big changes to higher ed, colleges are ramping up their spending on lobbying. The biggest spender in the first quarter of this year? Northwestern University at more than $607,000. My colleague Josh Moody has the full story here. (It includes a searchable database!)
On Tap for Next Week:
- The House and Senate will hold hearings concerning the state of higher education and DEI programs Wednesday.
- The Senate will hold a committee hearing to confirm under secretary nominee Nicholas Kent on Thursday.
- The House should vote on the reconciliation bill at some point.
So that’s it for Week 17. As always, if news breaks this afternoon or over the weekend, which will probably happen, you can find the latest at InsideHigherEd.com.
In the meantime, I’m headed across the pond and will be out of the office for the next two weeks. So we’re taking bets on what the status of American higher ed will be when I return. Have a good weekend and I’ll talk to you all in June!
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