On April 28, the House Education and Workforce Committee released its budget reconciliation bill, the Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan. The Committee then held a markup of the bill on Tuesday and advanced the legislation on a party-line vote. This bill is just one piece of the broader “budget reconciliation” bill that Congress is working to pass to enact many of the Administration’s priorities.
Notably, this bill would authorize the Workforce Pell Grant Program, designed to expand Pell Grant eligibility to students enrolled in short-term, high-quality, workforce-aligned programs. This has been a priority of the CTE and workforce development communities for many years, and has bipartisan support in Congress. We will be examining the specific provisions included with this short-term Pell program closely and following activity as the bill moves forward. In addition, the bill does increase mandatory funding for Pell grants slightly, presumably to cover some of the costs to offering short-term Pell.
The main goal of the bill, however, is to reduce mandatory spending under the jurisdiction of the Committee by at least $330 billion over 10 years. To accomplish this, the bill would implement several critical changes to financial aid and student loan eligibility, limits and repayment options. Key changes include:
- Placing new maximum caps on student loans for students and parents, and eliminating some loan options
- Eliminating the “SAVE” student loan repayment plan
- Consolidating other loan repayment options into one fixed plan and one income-driven repayment plan (with higher payments than current options)
- Instituting a “risk-sharing” program where colleges are responsible for some defaulted loans
- Eliminating some student loan borrower protections as well as the gainful employment rule
- Limiting Pell grants only to students who are enrolled at least half-time, and redefining full-time as 15 credit hours per semester compared with the current 12 hours
This bill will now go to the Budget Committee and be combined with bills other committees are producing as part of the broader budget reconciliation process. Then the full package would go to the House floor, and if passed there, would still need to be considered by the Senate. Only a simple majority vote is needed in the Senate to pass a budget reconciliation bill however, which means there is no need for bipartisan compromise.
ACTE will share more about this legislation and its progression as future activity unfolds.
Comments