What They’re Actually Saying About Republicans’ “Big Ugly Budget Bill”
WASHINGTON – House Republicans’ “Big Ugly Budget 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. Here is what advocates, experts, and scholars are actually saying about how this bill will impact them:
AFL-CIO: “These and other harmful cuts swamp the few new investments in the bill. The bill makes higher education less affordable and less accessible to millions of families. It responds to a budget resolution that desperately needs to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. But it will ultimately bust the budgets of countless families across this country.”
AFSCME: “Congress should focus on making college more affordable and accessible for all Americans who want to pursue it. However, the proposed bill under consideration... will severely restrict college access for tens of millions of Americans by slashing the very financial aid programs, consumer protections and student loan repayment programs that make it possible for low- and middle- income students to go to college.”
American Association of Community College (ACCT): “Community colleges strongly oppose the elimination of eligibility for less than half-time students and are concerned about the new enrollment intensity requirement to qualify for the maximum Pell Grant. Requiring students currently paying by the credit hour to increase their enrollment intensity decreases their per credit Pell Grant award from $616 a credit to $493 a credit. For our adult students, often balancing work and caregiving, this is a significant cut. We applaud the restoration of the family farm and small business exemption, which will help more students access student aid.”
American Academy of Family Physicians: “The bill proposes borrowing caps on federal student loans of $50,000 for undergraduate programs, $100,000 for graduate student programs and $150,000 for professional programs… Medical schools, especially public institutions, will not be able to make these drastic reductions to their tuition structures by July 1, 2026, when the loan caps go into effect. As a result, far fewer students will be able to afford medical school, exacerbating the existing physician shortages across the country, especially in rural areas.”
American Council on Education (ACE): “If enacted, this bill will put college out of reach for hundreds of thousands of students, significantly increase the costs for remaining students, and weaken America’s ability to compete with our global rivals by undermining the academic and research system that has driven our economy for decades… These cuts, combined with the proposed massive cuts to Medicaid and other programs that low-income students depend on for health care and basic needs, will have a disproportionately negative impact on the ability of low-income students to afford and access postsecondary education and skills training.”
American Osteopathic Association (AOA): “Our main concerns lie with the adjusted borrowing caps, termination of subsidized loans, and restrictions on repayment options in this bill. In 2024, the average medical school graduate’s debt was $234,597.1 The legislation proposes a borrowing cap of $150,000 for professional programs, which would make some medical schools inaccessible for certain students without additional financial aid. Given the growing physician workforce shortage and its disproportionate effect on rural and underserved communities, we believe initiatives should aim to reduce workforce shortfalls across medical specialties and geographic settings, rather than limiting the accessibility of medical education in a manner that intensifies shortages.”
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU): “Eliminating the subsidized loan program for undergraduate students; eliminating all graduate borrowing through the Grad Plus program and establishing and implementing untested, experimental models and concepts like a program's "median cost of attendance" and a risk share model that will siphon funds from high access, high graduation institutions. This affects nearly all faith-based institutions, punishing colleges and universities that have a proven track record on access, affordability and completion.”
Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU): “For public institutions, which collectively educate more than three-quarters of all students in postsecondary education, the bill would actually have the U.S. Department of Education take power over education from the states rather than return it to them. Perhaps most harmfully, the provisions incentivize institutions to increase selectivity in order to reduce their “risk,” which would greatly reduce opportunities for low and moderate-income students.”
California Community Colleges: “More than one-third of these students, who are disproportionately low-income, would see their aid reduced by an average of $1,800 per student (over $250 million in total) under the reconciliation proposal.”
Complete College America: “CCA firmly opposes any legislative attempts to tie Federal Pell Grant eligibility to a 30- credit-per-year minimum requirement instead of the current 12-credit-per-semester standard. The House Education and Workforce Committee’s reconciliation legislation, which proposes a change to Pell eligibility, fundamentally misunderstands the intent of 15 to Finish/Stay on Track and would disproportionately harm the very students higher education should be empowering.”
National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU): “The bill would significantly restrict student choice, increase college costs, and reduce the ability of private, nonprofit colleges and universities to fulfill their educational missions. Institutions that serve students with fewer public dollars and strong outcomes—especially in underserved communities—would be disproportionately impacted.”
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA): In this volatile economy, students and families are questioning not just how they will pay for college, but whether they should go at all. Rather than making college more affordable, this bill would eliminate entire federal student aid programs, significantly reduce eligibility for others, strip protections and flexibilities for struggling borrowers, and remove provisions intended to protect taxpayer dollars.”
National Education Assoictation: “As a whole, the bill transfers wealth from working families to the ultra-rich—ultimately at the expense of our students. It extends tax breaks created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy, large corporations, and other big businesses. Simultaneously, it shreds the social safety net and swells the national debt by as much as $5.2 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.”
The Institute for College Access & Success: “Congress is long overdue to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, and we would welcome bipartisan reforms that advance access, affordability, and accountability. But reconciliation is not the proper process for making the sweeping policy changes in this text, and the proposals now on the table for markup represent an alarming threat to students across the country and the future of our economy.”
Work Colleges Consortium: “We remain, however, very concerned about the creation of a “risk-sharing” provision that would negatively impact many of the Work Colleges. Despite being well below the average student loan debt in every state that there is a Work College, most of our schools would owe a payment to the federal government. In some instances, the payments would completely cancel out the Work College Program competitive grant award that the schools match dollar for dollar (or higher) to operate their work programs and bring down the cost of a college education for their students. In one instance, an institution that is tuition-free would be subject to a reimbursement payment to the federal government.”
Read more about how the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act makes college less affordable — all to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and corporations here.
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