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 your host, Jessica Blake, the federal policy reporter.
It’s Day 172 of the second Trump administration and boy do we have some catching up to do. We took last Friday off for the holiday weekend and, in classic D.C. fashion, that was the day President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law.
We’ve been talking about this bill and the reconciliation process for weeks now, but let’s recap. (And no, we probably won’t stop talking about it.)
The bill has been a hot topic of conversation among Republican lawmakers since the first week of the year. The goal was to cut trillions of dollars in spending to fund the president’s political priorities, such as tax cuts for the wealthy and increased immigration enforcement.
In the process, education committees proposed a dramatic overhaul to federal student aid—ending Graduate PLUS loans, cutting back the number of repayment options and expanding the Pell Grant to short-term programs. The Senate softened some elements, opting for an earnings test to hold colleges accountable and for higher caps on student loans. But the final higher ed provisions—and the $1 trillion cut to Medicaid—will likely have a huge impact on colleges, universities and the students they serve.
So what’s next? I dug into that question this week, and in short, experts are skeptical that the Education Department can carry out that overhaul by July 1, 2026, when many provisions are set to take effect.
The process will require department officials to change policies and create guidance for colleges. Meanwhile, institutions will have to grapple with budget shortfalls and student aid offices will face countless questions from students.
One expert told me it's a “Herculean task” for the department, which has lost nearly half of its staff. A smooth transition is likely too much to ask for. Instead, higher education leaders are just hoping the federal aid system doesn’t implode.
In Other News: University of Virginia president Jim Ryan resigned under pressure from the Justice Department. Many experts and higher ed leaders saw ousting Ryan as a significant escalation in Trump’s war on higher ed and in the role of the Department of Justice. That use of power, particularly by the Department of Justice, worries some experts. I have more on those concerns here.
And the Trump administration is claiming victory after the University of Pennsylvania agreed to its demands to strip a trans athlete of her awards and apologize for allowing her to compete on the women’s swimming team during the 2021–22 season—a decision that complied with all federal and NCAA policies at the time.
Some Good News: The Class of 2025 has completed a record number of financial aid applications, at least according to data from the National College Attainment Network. Over all, nearly 54 percent of graduating high school seniors have completed the FAFSA, and there’s still time for that number to increase, since the form is open until June 30, 2026.
On Tap for Next Week:
- The House Committee on Education and Workforce will hold another antisemitism hearing at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, July 15. Leaders from UC Berkeley, CUNY and Georgetown are slated to testify.
That’s it for Week 25. As always, when news breaks this afternoon or over the weekend, you can find the latest at InsideHigherEd.com. In the meantime, I’m going to catch up with a friend from my alma mater, the University of Missouri, who is visiting D.C. Have a good weekend!
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