By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
After a difficult year following the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), NASFAA President and CEO Melanie Storey sat down with Jon Fansmith of the American Council on Education (ACE) at NASFAA’s 2026 Virtual Summit to discuss the future of higher education by examining trends, challenges, and opportunities for the financial aid community.
A large part of Tuesday’s session with Storey and Fansmith, who is ACE’s senior vice president of government relations and national engagement, was directed at the implementation of OBBBA. Storey noted that the July 1, 2026, implementation date is just a “starting gun of a marathon,” and that while there are many more challenges ahead, there are also opportunities for the higher education community.
A key part of the issue for financial aid offices, and the higher education community as a whole, has been the accelerated timeline from the Department of Education (ED) to implement several provisions of OBBBA by July 1, 2026 – including new loan limits, the elimination of Graduate PLUS loans, new loan repayment plans, and much more. Along with that, there have been issues with ambiguity from the department, which includes unclear or no guidance on how institutions will remain compliant under these new regulations.
“We've spent the better part of a year in a lot of ambiguity,” Storey said. “Our institutions need to be in compliance with literally billions of federal dollars. We need to be good stewards of those dollars, and in some cases, we just aren't quite sure what our responsibilities are.”
Storey added that the changes made under OBBBA are right on the coattails of FAFSA simplification, which was also a turbulent time for ED and financial aid offices. Beyond OBBBA, ED is also pushing other key initiatives, including preventing fraud in the student aid programs, which also falls on financial aid offices.
A possible way to avoid the whiplash and ambiguity institutions are feeling right now could be solved through the reauthorization process of the Higher Education Act (HEA), both Storey and Fansmith noted. The budget reconciliation and annual appropriations processes, which are how Congress has been enacting policy changes to higher education in the absence of a long-overdue HEA reauthorization, don’t fully address the complex issues institutions face, especially regarding the student aid programs.
“The problem, of course, as we see time and time again, is simple ideas when translated into really complicated environments, like the myriad of circumstances students face financing their education rarely works smoothly,” Fansmith said. “There are all these unintended consequences that would be one thing to anticipate over a multi-year HEA reauthorization process, definitely are not going to be fully addressed in a couple months long reconciliation process, which is what we had.”
Fansmith added that many members of ACE and NASFAA are struggling to stay afloat during the changing landscape of higher education.
“A lot of [members] are paddling furiously to stay afloat and do the best they can as the tides shift, while also waiting to see in three months, six months, a year, where the sore spots emerged, and where the problems, and things that really need to be addressed are,” Fansmith said.
Storey agreed with Fansmith, adding that in the past few years, Congress has implemented “piecemeal” federal policy rather than a comprehensive overhaul of higher education, and that these efforts “don’t serve the diversity of students and institutions.”
Looking ahead, the duo spoke about November’s midterm elections and how a shakeup in Congress could impact higher education. Fansmith said it's likely that Democrats will control the House, but it's uncertain which party will control the Senate.
Fansmith warned that even if Democrats do end up taking control of both chambers, gridlock is still to be expected with the Trump administration in office.
“It's not going to mean a lot of the reversals of the Trump administration's policies,” Fansmith said. “It's also probably not going to mean there's going to be new laws getting passed because of a divided government, even Democrats in control of both chambers, they might be able to pass bills, but they will be bills the president won't sign.”
Storey and Fansmith concluded the session by addressing some questions from attendees, and Fansmith encouraged participants to share their stories about higher education.
NASFAA’s Virtual Summit continues on Wednesday with sessions focused on strategic workforce planning and ED’s Student Tuition and Transparency System and Earnings Accountability (STATS) and Earnings Accountability final rule.
Publication Date: 7/15/2026
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