McMahon Fields Questions from Senators on Cuts to Maximum Pell Grant, TRIO, and More Student Aid Programs in President Trump’s Budget Request
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
After President Donald Trump released his full budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2026 last week, which proposes several cuts to Department of Education (ED) programs, Education Secretary Linda McMahon defended the proposal to senators in an appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.
On Friday, the White House unveiled its detailed budget request for FY 26 after releasing a “skinny” budget request earlier in May. Notably, the request calls for $66.7 billion in new discretionary budget authority for ED, a decrease of $12 billion – or a 15.3% reduction – from the enacted level for FY 24. The Trump administration also proposed that the federal Pell Grant program be funded at the FY 24 level, and set the maximum award to $5,710 for the 2026-27 award year, which is a decrease of $1,685 from the current fiscal year.
The request also proposed to fully eliminate the federal TRIO programs and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) program, and cut the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program by $980 million, leaving the program funded at $250 million.
Already in May, McMahon testified before the House appropriations subcommittee defending Trump’s initial “skinny” budget request. During the Senate appropriation subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, McMahon doubled down on Trump’s more detailed budget request, saying that this proposal shrinks federal bureaucracy, saves taxpayer money, and empower states.
“[The budget request’s] cuts reflect a bureaucracy that is getting out of the way, and [the budget request’s] continuations and increases represent smart spending that will help improve student achievement and not serve bureaucratic interests,” McMahon said in her opening remarks. “Our goal is clear, make education better, fairer and more accountable by ending federal overreach and empowering families, schools and states who best know the needs of their students.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), chair of the subcommittee, said in her opening statement that she looks forward to working with McMahon to allocate funds to ED, and stressed that this is a pivotal time for student loan borrowers.
“After years of confusion, the department must work to restore trust with borrowers by providing clear and consistent information about repayment,” Capito said. “Student loan borrowers deserve that clarity in order to fulfill their obligations to repay their loans. I'm grateful that under your leadership, the department has become the difficult task of getting borrowers back on the path to repayment, and I look forward to your continued progress.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), ranking member of the subcommittee, noted in her opening remarks how this budget request could have devastating consequences for low-income and non-traditional students.
“You are proposing to eliminate programs that support non-traditional students in higher education, including TRIO, GEAR UP,” Baldwin said. “You are proposing to drastically reduce the maximum Pell Grant award by almost $1,700, which has a devastating consequence for our nation's lowest-income students, including those looking to acquire new skills to meet the needs of local employers and in demand industries. The math is simple. This budget significantly cuts federal education funding.”
Democrats weren’t the only ones to question why ED requested to fully eliminate the federal TRIO programs. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, asked McMahon to explain why the Trump administration believes the TRIO programs should be eliminated, despite having bipartisan support in Congress. Furthermore, she said she strongly disagrees with Trump’s proposal to eliminate the TRIO programs.
Previously in the 117th and 118th congressional sessions, Collins, along with Capito, Baldwin, and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), supported legislation that would strengthen the TRIO programs.
McMahon said in response to Collins that while there is “some effectiveness” of the TRIO programs, ED has limited accountability of these programs.
“Congress does control the purse strings, and I would sincerely hope that if you decide with appropriations to continue these [TRIO] programs, that we could work with you to renegotiate those terms that we feel kind of hamstrung by the Department of Education,” McMahon said. “That's a real drawback in these programs, and I think all of us would agree we want to make sure that anything that we are funding, we can attach accountabilities to it.”
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) asked McMahon why the Trump administration called for eliminating the TRIO programs instead of calling for an audit, since the administration’s main concern is accountability. McMahon said that if Congress continues to appropriate funds to the TRIO programs, she would want to work with Congress to audit the programs.
Another topic of concern brought up by Democrats was on borrower defense. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) expressed concerns that ED was hollowing resources for affected borrowers to apply and receive borrower defense to repayment.
Multiple senators also brought up their concerns with cuts to the Pell Grant program, including Reed, who said cuts to the program will shrink educational opportunities for a generation of students and will shrink the country’s ability to compete internationally.
“We have spent $3 trillion since 1980 on education in our country when this department was set up,” McMahon said in response to Reed. “And our scores have continued to go down. We are not doing something right.”
McMahon also received questions on ED’s request to expand the Pell Grant to short-term workforce programs. McMahon said she believes that creating a short-term Pell program will get students into the economy and working right away.
Congress must work now to create a budget legislation for FY 2026 by the September 30, 2025 deadline. While the Senate has not scheduled markups for the Labor-HHS-Education bill, the House has released its committee schedule. It is slated to consider its appropriations bill during the week of July 21.
Stay tuned to Today’s News for more updates on the appropriations process.
Publication Date: 6/4/2025
David S | 6/4/2025 3:40:49 PM
This administration claims to be streamlining government to make it more efficient, but these proposed cuts are the equivalent of removing the engine from your car to use less gasoline. We are often advised to take White House budget requests with a grain of salt because the real budget is the result of legislation; however, Republicans in both chambers have demonstrated at every opportunity that they believe their only job is to grant this administration everything it wants. And what it wants is clear; drastically reduce Pell and Work Study, eliminate SEOG...they want college to be for those who can afford it out of pocket (yes, there's institutional aid, especially at private colleges, but the threats to tax endowments and/or remove colleges' tax exempt status mean that there will be a lot less of that to go around).
And all so billionaires and mega-corporations can get massive tax cuts. Call your Senators and Congressperson to express your opposition to this disaster, call until they're sick of hearing from you, then keep calling some more; the "big beautiful bill" was bad enough, but this stands 100% against everything our profession stands for. The students we serve deserve no less.
Anthony S | 6/4/2025 1:32:47 PM
“Our goal is clear, make education better, fairer and more accountable by ending federal overreach and empowering families, schools and states who best know the needs of their students..... this proposal shrinks federal bureaucracy, saves taxpayer money, and empower states. ”
Feels like our Government wants to be held less accountable for our country's education.
Here's what I would suggest:
1. Share positive statistics instead of a generic "We have spent $3 trillion since 1980 on education"
How much from that $3Trillion has helped students, families? How many graduated since then?
2. Get experts in the field to come up with a plan of action. Financial Aid experts from Community & Technical Colleges can share what is working and what is not. There are also factors that are in place to reduce/eliminate fraudulent activity (file review, verification/SAP notices/R2T4).
3. Provide our Country with a detailed explanation on how the Federal Government going to 'empower' families, schools and states.
Sharon L | 6/4/2025 11:8:25 AM
If the cuts aim to "help improve student achievement and not serve bureaucratic interests,” why are grants to students being cut?
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