Senate Continues to Negotiate Revisions to the One Big Beautiful Bill As the Likelihood of Either Chamber Leaving Town For the 4th of July Break By Thursday Appears Highly Unlikely

Overview
With just four days officially remaining, including today, before both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are scheduled to adjourn for the 4th of July Congressional recess, Congress continues to negotiate the content of a comprehensive package of legislative proposals President Trump hopes to sign on or before next Friday, July 4th. Whether or not Congress will meet the self-imposed Republican deadline could still happen, but there is a long way yet to go.

As of the development of this email, the U.S. Senate Republicans are engaged in negotiations amongst themselves, with their GOP counterparts in the House, and the White House on revisions to H.R. 1 – The One Big Beautiful Bill Act which will extend the Trump Administration’s previous tax cuts, make additional changes to key policies related to energy, Medicaid, labor, and education. The Senate’s goal is/was to bring the combined proposals from all the Senate Committees to the floor for a limited debate and vote on passage by Thursday. However, rulings by the Senate Parliamentarian that key provisions are not permitted to be included in the legislation under the strict rules of Budget Reconciliation, along with internal GOP battles over the language on key provisions, have slowed the process considerably.

These delays could very well prevent the Senate from bringing the legislation to the full Senate by Thursday – forcing the Senate to extend their time in Washington to attempt to pass the legislation before leaving for home. We say attempt because depending upon the outcome of ongoing negotiations, the Senate Majority Leader Thune and the Republicans may not have the simple majority (fifty votes) needed to pass the legislation. And if they do, the legislation then must return to the U.S. House of Representatives for approval of the revised bill – approval which also may not be attainable given House GOP conservatives concerns with the reworked bill.

The bottom-line, both Chambers are likely to be spending the weekend – and maybe portions of next week – in Washington in an effort to develop and enact the major tax and savings legislation prior to Independence Day.

Higher Education Policy Negotiations REMAIN OPEN
It is important to note that while other policy issues are grabbing the major media headlines, there continues to be negotiations on the key education policy as well. In both Title VII – Finance and Title VIII – Health Education, Labor, and Pensions portions of the bill there are significant higher education policy issues that continue to be considered. The top three topics include major concerns with the impact of proposed changes to graduate and professional degree programs, the new accountability regime, and the inclusion and/or exclusion of the four regulatory relief proposals (90/10, FVT/GE, BDR, and Closed School Discharges).

CSPEN anticipates that by the end of the day today, or tomorrow at the very latest, the picture on what changes, additions, or omissions that will be included in the Senate bill will be finalized.

We continue to work with the rest of the higher education community and other interested parties in support of proposals supporting and protecting students, institutions and their third-party service providers, and the employers.

We will share with the community the very latest information on updates tomorrow and Thursday in advance of our Thursday afternoon CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar.

Federal Negotiated Rulemaking Update
CSPEN is also monitoring the U.S. Department of Education’s Negotiated Rulemaking for 2025 landing page in anticipation of the imminent release of the list of negotiators and proposals to be considered during next week’s three-day session (June 30-July 2).

What’s Next
All eyes are on the determinations that continue to be provided by the Senate Parliamentarian on the acceptance or rejection of sections of each Title of the Senate bill AND the scoring associated with the proposals. CSPEN will share these details and the status of negotiations on key sections of legislation throughout the week and provide recommendations about additional community outreach that is taking place or needs to take place on a specific topic.

Stay tuned for updates each day and join us Thursday for a comprehensive, up-to-the-minute summary and commentary on the status of higher education policy deliberations taking place in Washington.