Photo of Busy Day Ahead With Both House Reconciliation Markup and Department Public Hearing

Section-by-Section Summary of the House Education & Workforce Committee’s Budget Reconciliation Proposal Available On CSPEN’s Website

Overview
Yesterday, CSPEN shared with you the breaking news regarding today’s House Education & Workforce Committee mark up of provisions to achieve the $330+ billion in budget savings from programs under the jurisdiction of the Committee required under the Congressional Budget Reconciliation directives.

This morning, a comprehensive section-by-section summary of the 103-page bill is available for download on CSPEN’s website. Our summary contains all the details of the bill that will be used as the starting point for today’s deliberations, including in-depth descriptions of all the seven Subtitles.

View & Download the Summary

Most notably, the base bill includes:

Student Loans

  • Beginning in award year 2026-2027, student financial assistance will be based upon the median cost of college – or the program of study – for which a student is enrolled.
  • Federal Direct Subsidized Loan eligibility is terminated for all undergraduate students for any period of instruction beginning on or after July 1, 2026.
  • Federal Direct Unsubsidized Student Loan eligibility shall be the primary form of student loans moving forward.
  • For undergraduate loans, the annual loan amount will be determined based upon the difference between:
    • the amount of the median cost of college of the program of study in which the student is enrolled; and
    • the amount of Federal Pell Grant awarded to the student.
  • Part-time student loan eligibility is determined on a strict pro-rate basis. The amount of eligibility is reduced in direct proportion to the degree to which that student is not so enrolled on a full-time basis, rounded to the nearest whole percentage point.
  • The maximum aggregate amount of Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans that a student may borrow for programs of study that award an undergraduate credential upon completion is capped at $50,000
  • Federal Direct PLUS Loan eligibility is terminated for all graduate or professional students for any period of instruction beginning on or after July 1, 2026.
  • Federal Direct PLUS Loan eligibility is terminated for parents seeking a loan on behalf of a dependent student for any period of instruction beginning on or after July 1, 2026 unless a student’s full academic need (cost of attendance) is not fulfilled by a borrower first taking out the maximum annual amount of Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford loans.
  • Beginning on July 1, 2026, an institution of higher education (at the discretion of a financial aid administrator at the institution) may limit the total amount of loans made under this part for a program of study for an academic year that a student may borrow, and that a parent may borrow on behalf of such student, as long as any such limit is applied consistently to all students enrolled in such program of study.

Student Loan Repayment

  • Within no more than nine (9) months of enactment of the law, the Department of Education is to transition the loans of all borrowers in repayment status or administrative forbearance into one of two new repayment options established by the bill (a new standard loan repayment plan or new income-based “Repayment Assistance Plan” (RAP)).
  • Upon enactment, borrowers in default are provided with two opportunities to enter into loan rehabilitation. Individuals entering into loan rehabilitation on or after July 1, 2025 will be required to make a minimum monthly payment of $10.

Federal Pell Grants

  • Defines full-time for purposes of Federal Pell Grant eligibility as the completion of at least 30 semester or trimester hours, or 45 quarter credit hours (or the clock hour equivalent) in each academic year.
  • Limits Federal Pell Grant eligibility to only students enrolled on at least a half-time basis (expected to complete at least 15 semester or trimester hours) in each academic year.
  • Expands eligibility for Pell Grants on or after July 1, 2026 by establishing a new Workforce Pell Grant Program. The program operates the same as the administration of other Federal Pell Grants but is targeted for students enrolled in short-term, high-quality, workforce aligned programs that meet specific requirements.

Institutional Accountability

  • Beginning in award year 2028-2029 each institution of higher education participating in the direct student loan program under this part shall, for qualifying student loans, remit to the Secretary, at such time as the Secretary may specify, an annual reimbursement for each student cohort of the institution, based on the non-repayment balance associated with loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2027 to specific cohorts.
  • Reimbursement determinations are based upon the reimbursement percentage for three specific cohort of students established by the Secretary, multiplied by the non-repayment balance for the cohort for the award year.

Regulatory Relief

  • Strikes section 487(a)(24), eliminating the 90/10 rule.
  • Strikes the words “gainful employment in” from all relevant definitions of an institution of higher education, eliminating the language used to establish all forms of the Gainful Employment regulations.
  • Repeals the Biden-Harris administration’s regulations pertaining to borrower defense to repayment and closed school discharges, returning the regulatory requirements back to the guidance in effect prior to the November 1, 2022 promulgation of the new regulations.

What’s Next

At 10:15 AM ET April 29, 2025, the House Committee will begin markup of the bill as summarized by CSPEN. We do not anticipate any Republican amendments to the bill but do fully anticipate a number of Democratic amendments coming from Ranking Member Scott and the other Democratic members of the Committee. If you wish to watch the proceedings live, you can do so here (https://www.youtube.com/live/BR0wJVVgrmk).

As for CSPEN we will be starting our our day roughly three city blocks away from the markup. Our plan is to attend the first of two public hearings on topics for consideration under the proposed 2025-2026 Federal Negotiated Rulemaking at the U.S. Department of Education, beginning today at 9AM ET. We will stay at 400 Maryland Ave. until the hearing concludes at 4PM and then head up the Hill to the Rayburn House Office building and the rest of the E&W Committee markup.

As we hope you know by now, the Trump Administration and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon have requested two public hearings this week (today in person and Thursday virtually) on three topics:

  1. Refining definitions of a qualifying employer for the purposes of determining eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
  2. Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) repayment plans.
  3. Potential topics that would streamline current federal student financial assistance program regulations while maintaining or improving program integrity and institutional quality.

CSPEN anticipates that the third topic will result in comments and recommendations across the regulatory spectrum, and we will be there monitoring the proposals and sharing a summary of them and the Congressional markup on Wednesday.

Thursday, we will once again participate in the virtual public hearing and collect all our notes to share a comprehensive update of the week on our FRIDAY, CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar.