Welcome back to After the First 100 Days, Inside Higher Ed’s weekly roundup of news from the Hill to the Oval Office. We’re your hosts, Katherine Knott, IHE’s news editor, and Jessica Blake, the federal policy reporter.
It’s Day 158 of the second Trump administration. The Senate’s grand plans to pass sweeping legislation to cut spending and taxes and overhaul higher education by the end of next week seem on the verge of collapse. But it’s Congress, so anything can happen. And researchers are still waiting for their NIH funding after a federal judge ordered the agency to restore the canceled grants. At the Education Department, advocates for career and technical education are worried about the plan to send those programs to the Labor Department.
But let’s dive into our favorite topic of late: reconciliation.
The stakes are high for education in the reconciliation bill. Congressional Republicans want to increase endowment taxes, revamp the student loan program and change how colleges are held accountable for students’ outcomes. All that could add up to some of the most significant changes to federal higher education policy in decades.
The Senate is planning to start voting on the megabill known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as soon as this weekend. Remember that President Trump wants to sign it into law by July 4 (next Friday). He told lawmakers to stay in D.C. as long as it takes.
But as of Friday morning, the Senate bill doesn’t include workforce Pell, which would expand the Pell Grant to short-term workforce training programs. A Senate official known as the parliamentarian said workforce Pell didn’t comply with the chamber’s complicated rules for reconciliation, a process that only requires 51 votes to pass legislation. (Sixty is the usual threshold in the Senate.) Jessica has more here on this review process.
Overnight, the parliamentarian also nixed a measure that would have exempted religious colleges from the endowment tax.
But the Senate’s plan to hold colleges accountable for students’ earnings did clear the review, along with plans to eliminate the Grad PLUS program and cap other student loans. The increase to the endowment tax rate is still on the table, and one House lawmaker is upset that the Senate went with a lower cap. Quick civics reminder: In order for a bill to become law, the same version has to pass both chambers, so at some point, the House and Senate will have to work out their differences.
In Other News: The New York Times broke the news last night that the Justice Department demanded that the University of Virginia’s president resign. That’s a significant escalation for the Trump administration, so we’re watching that closely.
Federal judges also dealt more blows to the Trump administration’s agenda, striking down the ban on international students attending Harvard University and the National Science Foundation’s proposed cap on indirect research cost reimbursements.
On Tap for Next Week:
- It’s a short holiday week, but we’ll be watching for a reconciliation vote.
- On Monday, the Education Department kicks off three days of negotiated rule making over changes to the regulations for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. We previewed the proposal here.
That’s it for Week 23. Next Friday is the Fourth of July, so we’ll be taking the week off. But this newsletter will return to your inboxes July 11.
As always, when news breaks this afternoon or over the weekend, you can find the latest at InsideHigherEd.com. In the meantime, Katherine is going to see her first Savannah Bananas game, and Jessica will be waiting in line for an auto inspection at the DMV, so we both have fun plans. Have a good weekend!
— Katherine and Jessica
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