President Trump, Republicans Deliver Historic Wins in One Big Beautiful Bill, Reforming America’s Broken Higher Education System

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, highlighted the historic reforms included in the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) to fix America’s broken higher education system to better serve students, workers, and families. The HELP Committee portion of reconciliation saved taxpayers over $284 billion, the most savings of any Senate committee.

“Our higher education system has failed students, workers, and families. Students are graduating with degrees that won’t get them a job and insurmountable debt that they can’t pay back,” said Dr. Cassidy. “President Trump and Republicans delivered historic reforms to lower college costs, hold universities accountable for failing programs, and increase hard-working Americans’ access to opportunities that set them up for success.”

PRO-STUDENT

• Strengthens the Pell Grant program that low-income undergraduate students rely on.

• Caps graduate loans at reasonable levels to lower tuition prices and protect students from drowning in debt.

• Increases Direct Unsubsidized Loan limit for professional students (such as future doctors), so they can borrow up to $50,000/year at lower interest rates and origination fees.

PRO-WORKER

• Creates Workforce Pell grants so that workers can take advantage of short-term programs that provide the skills needed for in-demand jobs.

• Simplifies student loan repayment to two plans, ending the complex web of plans that was confusing for borrowers to navigate.

• Reforms income-driven repayment so that borrowers who make affordable payments make progress on paying down their loans rather than being trapped with insurmountable debts.

PRO-FAMILY

• Supports families with a $50 per-child reduction in monthly student loan payment for borrowers enrolled in the Repayment Assistance Plan.

• Enacts common-sense protections to prevent federal loans from supporting programs that leave students worse off.

• Restores fiscal sanity to the student loan program so that it will continue to serve current and future generations.

Click here for a one-pager on the HELP Committee portion of the OBBB.

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Here’s what higher education leaders and experts are saying about the One Big Beautiful Bill:

“Educating and skilling America’s workforce has never been more important than it is today. Sixty plus million Americans with a high school diploma or less lack the skills to gain meaningful employment. With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which now includes Workforce Pell, people across the nation will now have greater opportunities for generations to come. On behalf of the people of Louisiana, we are grateful,” said Dr. Monty Sullivan, President, Louisiana Community and Technical College System.

“Expanding Pell Grants to include short-term workforce training... helps more North Carolinians quickly gain skills, earn credentials, and connect to opportunity. It’s a win for students, employers, and communities across our state,” said Dr. Jeff Cox, President, North Carolina Community College System.

“The passage into law of the Workforce Pell Program after long-sought advocacy by our colleges will allow students looking to quickly jumpstart or retool their professions to access the financial aid they need to do so. We thank the leaders of the education committees for ensuring this important priority remained a part of the final package,” said Jee Hang Lee, President and CEO, Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT).

“President Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill is now law, marking a watershed moment for higher education policy and renewing the debate about how to evaluate the return on investment of a college degree... Under the new policy framework adopted by Congress, it will no longer be possible for leaders to snub such disclosures. Despite the discomfort it will cause, I am hopeful that this policy transition will restore the public’s trust in higher education through methods like those that Colorado Mountain College — the institution I lead — has employed for more than 10 years,” said Matt Gianneschi, President, Colorado Mountain College.

“More than any other factor, a program having low earnings is the thing that is most connected with the prevalence of students defaulting or struggling to pay down their loans. This is a serious and sensible proposal to establish what I think of as a very necessary accountability in the higher education space,” said Jordan Matsudaira, Director, Postsecondary Education and Economics Research Center at American University.

“Student loan limits, repayment reform, and accountability for colleges will transform the federal role in higher education, largely for the better...The reforms enacted in OBBB represent a significant improvement for the student loan program, which will better protect students and taxpayers,” said Preston Cooper, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute.

“This law is the most consequential legislation affecting higher education for the past couple of decades. Like any legislation, it was a product of compromise, but overall, as I predict, it will move higher education and the country in the right direction,” said Andrew Gillen, Research Fellow, Cato Institute.

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