Donald Trump Elected 47th President of the United States
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election against Vice President Kamala Harris, securing key battleground states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Meanwhile, in the Senate races Republicans picked up at least three seats which will give them the majority for the 119th Congress. However, the makeup of the House, currently controlled by Republicans, has not yet been called.
In the Senate, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) currently serves as the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, meaning he could lead the committee for the 119th Congress. The chamber is expected to begin its leadership elections as soon as next week.
Control of the House will have significant implications for federal policymaking. For instance, with a narrow House majority, Republicans would have unified control of Congress and the White House, opening up access to tools like budget reconciliation, and the Congressional Review Act, which require only a simple majority of votes in each chamber to enact certain pieces of legislation. Should Democrats gain control of the House, a divided government will force the parties to reconcile differences over the budget and make it more difficult for the Senate to advance legislation without some support from Democrats in both chambers.
On Trump’s platform, he does not specifically mention any policy measures about student loan debt forgiveness or overturning the Biden administration’s proposed student debt relief regulations. However, during the September presidential debate, Trump called the Biden administration’s initial widespread student loan relief plan — which would have forgiven up to $20,000 for eligible borrowers and was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court — a “total catastrophe.”
Notably, the Biden administration earlier in October released its proposed regulations to provide student loan forgiveness for borrowers experiencing hardships. Under a Trump administration, Trump could opt to not publish the final rules, thus blocking that part of the Biden administration’s loan forgiveness plan.
NASFAA recently reported on what another Trump administration could mean for student financial aid, based on public statements and previous initiatives. NASFAA staff also discussed possible election impacts on the “Off the Cuff” podcast, and outlined how NASFAA develops its advocacy positions as a nonpartisan organization and how it advocates on the Hill.
Stay tuned to Today’s News for more coverage of the presidential transition and any implications for student financial aid.
Publication Date: 11/7/2024
Scott J | 11/7/2024 11:59:46 AM
Time to clean up the wasteful spending in D.C. Starting with the bureaucrats in the department of education. There is no intent for not providing federal aid to families who need it. With the increase amount of debt from the loans already forgiven, this change will be a good thing. Embrace it.
Joshua M | 11/7/2024 10:30:23 AM
looking forward to less punitive regulatory oversite and a actual better FAFSA Better Future
David S | 11/7/2024 10:11:52 AM
(part 2)
Their first goal with higher ed will be to punish and eradicate "wokeness." This will come in the form of attempts to "tax" endowments of the "elite" schools and threaten them with loss of T4 eligibility, echoing McCarthyism with accusations of "Un-American activity." This will be followed by shutting down ED and/or mass exodus of the staff who don't want to work in an environment in which students aren't being helped. All forms of student loan forgiveness - including PSLF - will be gone, whether through legislation, or like 2017-2021, when ED just refused to process valid applications. Then student loans will be privatized, allowing lenders to redline schools they don't like, just as they did in the waning days of FFELP. Trump will try to shut down the entire accreditation process, which he's blamed for Marxism (insert face palm emoji here) and if T4 aid still exists, it will be flowing freely to schools that might as well be Trump University, as they won't have to be credentialed, and couldn't earn it if they had to.
I could go on, but I'll just stop by saying the coming years will be a disaster. NASFAA's commitment to political neutrality will not have served the students we work for well. It's hard to "work with" people whose policy positions are so much at odds with what our profession is supposed to stand for.
David S | 11/7/2024 10:11:37 AM
First and foremost, the party coming into power has made it crystal clear that they believe fewer Americans should attend college; this was stated in unambiguous terms by Congresswoman Virginia Foxx on a NASFAA podcast (and that statement went entirely unchallenged, much to my horror). Trump's previous Secretary of Education told our profession at the last FSA Conference of her tenure, "the 2/3 of Americans who don't go to college shouldn't have to pay for the 1/3 who do."
So...they want fewer students on our campuses, and taxpayers who don't attend college shouldn't have to assist those who do (despite their benefitting by living in a country with a well educated workforce)...it's pretty obvious as to what students they want gone. They all went to college...Trump is Ivy League educated, so are his kids. Vance - who has called college professors "the enemy" - has a law degree from Yale. Rep Foxx has an EdD.
They're telling poor people "we don't want your kids on campus."
(to be continued)
Jesse H | 11/7/2024 9:57:37 AM
Not trying to start a political discussion here in the comments section (I think we've all had more than we want of that recently), but I do wonder in practical terms what it will mean for our profession if the proposal among some Republicans of "eliminating the Department of Education" ever goes through. In such a case, has there been discussion of spinning off Federal Student Aid as its own thing, or perhaps moving it to a different department of the executive branch?
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