CDRs To Be Publicly Released Today While Congress and The President Inch Closer To A Potential Government Shutdown
Overview
We are awaiting public release of the Fiscal Year 2022 Official Cohort Default Rates, while at the same time continuing to review and provide comments and suggestions to the non-federal negotiators who are preparing for next week’s Federal Negotiated Rulemaking on the regulatory front. And we are continuing to monitor and engage in discussion with Capitol Hill as they work on various critically important federal funding discussions and decisions impacting the continued operations of the federal government in the near term and the operations of the federal government through September 30, 2026 over the longer time horizon.
Here are a couple of important updates and summaries.
Congress Remains Focused On Our Nation’s Federal Funding
Yesterday was a very busy, but not necessarily productive day, in the efforts here in Washington to negotiate a short-term continuing resolution (CR), work towards compromises which will enable Congress to pass and the President to sign the various Fiscal Year 2026 Appropriations bills and avert a government shutdown. The good news is that the Congressional Appropriators and their staff continue to work towards both consideration and passage of the twelve 2026 federal funding bills in each chamber and negotiations across chambers on compromises in the differences between the House and Senate bills. The bad news is that public negotiations on the short-term CR are NOT GOING WELL.
Efforts to work with the Democrats on a path forward in the development of both the CR and the actual legislation broke down when President Trump cancelled the meeting with Congressional Democratic leaders.
As of right now, the President appears to favor the House-backed CR, passed last week, as opposed to the Senate version passed two weeks ago. This poses serious problems, as the House and Senate must agree on a single bill and pass it to avoid a government shutdown. And right now, subject to change, but as of right now, neither chamber appears to be prepared to pass a CR before the 2025 fiscal year expires at midnight next Tuesday.
Yesterday, House Minority Leader Jeffries said that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has cancelled the House floor votes that were scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday (September 29th and 30th). This means House members are not required to be back on Capitol Hill on Monday and appears that they will not even vote on whatever bill they decide upon by the end of the day on Tuesday, September 30, 2025.
Although this may likely change, the political maneuvering signals that the White House and the House majority is pushing the Senate to agree to its bill (which passed the House), or there could be a government shutdown. Minority Leader Jeffries said that all minority members of the House will be in DC on Monday.
There is still a lot of time between now and the last stroke of midnight next Tuesday, but right now the outcome of the CR and whether there will be a government shutdown is uncertain.
CSPEN will continue to track and report on the status of both the CR and the Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations bills through both email updates and more detailed information on this week’s CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update.
Department’s Public Release of Fiscal Year 2022 Cohort Default Rates
Yesterday, CSPEN highlighted the Department of Education’s Electronic Announcement (LOANS-25-08) (fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2025-09-22/fy-2022-official-cohort-default-rate-distributed-sept-22-2025) which provided the details on the Monday, September 22 release by the Federal Student Aid Office of the Fiscal Year 2022 Official Cohort Default Rate notification packages to all eligible domestic and foreign institutions of higher education. Include within the notice were details on the distribution of the FY22 CDRs, details on the CDR Appeals process, and notice that the Department intended to publicly release the CDRs today.
CSPEN held off in the release of this update in the hopes that we would be able to provide initial details on what we anticipate will be data reflecting extremely low FY22 rates for all institutions of higher education. We will share more details in tomorrow’s email and on this week’s CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update.
Reimagining Service Loan Forgiveness (RISE) Committee Viewing
Many within our community have reached out to CSPEN to inquire about how to register to watch the proceedings virtually. The answer to that request is to log on to the webpage (cvent.me/33AnQ3), follow the prompts providing your personal information and individually selecting your virtual participation for the morning and afternoon sessions for each day, and review and submit your registration. You will receive a confirmation on the screen stating that you are confirmed, and an email to that effect as well.
Then – look for Tom in the crowd on Monday and Tuesday, as he will be there in person and then sharing time with all of you who register to attend virtually on Wednesday through Friday while also attending and presenting at the California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools.
What’s Next
As noted in the summaries, many, many things in Washington are “fluid” right now. We are monitoring all of these important topics, and are also spending considerable time reviewing and sharing comments with non-federal negotiators on the discussion drafts that were presented to the RISE Committee members late on Monday. The discussion drafts are available for review and download, but are still not posted on the Department’s own RISE Committee drop down within the Negotiated Rulemaking for Higher Education 2025 (www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/higher-education-laws-and-policy/higher-education-policy/negotiated-rulemaking-for-higher-education-2025-2026) landing page.
