Congressional Republicans' “Big Ugly Bill"  makes extreme cuts to federal education, health, and child nutrition programs, and raises the federal deficit, all to give more tax breaks and handouts to wealthy Americans and corporations.

 Watch Ranking Member Scott Rip Apart Republicans' “Big Ugly Bill" on YouTube.

 

The Republicans' "Big Ugly Bill" will make college less affordable for students, raise student loan payments for current borrowers, and expose students to predatory, for-profit institutions— all to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. 

Republicans' "Big Ugly Bill" cuts access to Pell Grants and other financial aid. This bill increases the number of credits per semester required for students to receive their full Pell Grant award from 12 to 15.  This change would result in a $1,479 cut to the maximum Pell Grant of $7,395 for any student taking 12 credits. Meanwhile, approximately two-thirds of all Pell recipients could see even worse cuts to their award.  The bill also fully eliminates Pell Grants for students who cannot take more than 15 credits per year.  Over 4 million students are estimated to have their Pell Grants reduced or eliminated if this bill is enacted.

Republicans' "Big Ugly Bill" forces student loan borrowers into unaffordable repayment plans. For the more than 42 million Americans who hold federal student loan debt, this proposal would replace existing income-driven repayment plans with a single plan that would increase payments for most borrowers and remove existing safeguards that protect borrowers from carrying debt for more than 25 years.  For the average borrower, the House Republican proposal would increase monthly student loan payments by almost $200.

Republicans' "Big Ugly Bill" pushes students to the predatory private loan market by eliminating subsidized and Graduate PLUS loans, and capping Parent PLUS loans. This bill eliminates new subsidized loans for all undergraduate students and new Grad PLUS loans.  It also requires undergraduate students to exhaust their unsubsidized loans before parents can utilize Parent PLUS to cover the remaining cost of attendance, and sets a limit for Parent PLUS loans of $50,000.  With these caps, students would be pushed to take out predatory, unregulated private loans to finance their degree – or walk away from their education. 

To learn more about how the Republicans’ "Big Ugly Bill" will make college less affordable and expose students and taxpayers to risk, click here.  

Republicans’ extreme cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will negatively impact children’s access to school meal programs and threaten food security for millions of families.  

Around 15.6 million kids are able to be directly certified for free or reduced-price meals because their families participate in SNAP, Medicaid, or meet other federal criteria.

 

If a certain percentage of students in a school or school district live in a household that participates in federal programs, such as SNAP and often Medicaid, schools and districts can take advantage of the “Community Eligibility Provision" (CEP) and serve free meals to all children.  Nearly 50,000 schools currently use this option to serve free meals to all kids. 

 

If a family loses SNAP or Medicaid because of Republican cuts, that means kids could also lose direct access to free or reduced-price school meals.  Additionally, fewer students directly certified through SNAP or Medicaid also means fewer schools will qualify for CEP.  

 

Making matters worse, Republicans’ cuts to SNAP and Medicaid will reduce participation in the Summer EBT program, which supports over 20 million kids and prevents them from going hungry in the summer.  SNAP and Medicaid cuts could also limit access to nutritious food and health services through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which also relies on similar automatic eligibility processes. 

 

To learn more about how the Republicans' "Big Ugly Bill" limits access to free school meals, click here. 

 

 

The Republicans’ "Big Ugly Bill" will create the first nationwide federal school voucher program, force taxpayers to fund private schools and homeschools, and effectively divert funding and resources away from public schools that serve over 90 percent of students—all to pay for tax cuts for the rich and subsidize their children’s private education.

 

Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill creates an unprecedented tax cut for the rich by: 

• Enabling donors to school voucher programs to receive a 100 percent tax credit— all of their money back. This would elevate donations to voucher programs above all other donations, including donations made to food pantries, hospitals, houses of worship, and every other kind of charity.
• Allowing millionaires to avoid paying capital gains taxes when they donate investments such as stocks, bonds, and real estate.
• Letting wealthy people—those earning up to three times their area median income—qualify for the vouchers to use for their own children, either for private schools or homeschooling.
• Forcing taxpayers to foot the bill at $20 billion.

 

To learn more about how the Republicans’ "Big Ugly Bill" is bad for public education, click here.