2025 Budget Reconciliation Web Center
This web center has been created to keep NASFAA members informed on the budget reconciliation process and encourage participation in our Call to Action campaign. This page will be updated regularly to reflect the latest developments as Congress continues its work on reconciliation.
Background
Budget reconciliation is a legislative process often used when there is a unified government, meaning one political party controls the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House. Reconciliation legislation can include statutory programmatic changes, but they must directly impact the federal budget. The advantage of making changes via budget reconciliation for the party in control is that it only requires a simple majority to pass each chamber of Congress.
The House bill outlined below kicked off the budget reconciliation process and is the first of many steps before passage. The Senate, which has not yet weighed in on the House bill or introduced its own proposal, could use the House legislation as a starting point and make revisions to the existing language, or choose to draft its own proposal entirely. The House and Senate must agree to identical versions of the reconciliation bill before it can be enacted into law.
On April 28, the House Committee on Education and Workforce released a draft of its reconciliation proposal and marked up the bill on April 29. The committee has received reconciliation instructions to produce at least $330 billion in savings over 10 years. The bill calls for significant changes to programs and initiatives administered by the Department of Education (ED), and includes concerning cuts and eliminations in the federal student aid space, such as:
- Changing the definition of full-time enrollment for Pell Grant eligibility from 12 credit hours to 15 credit hours
- Terminating the subsidized loan program for undergraduate students
- Terminating the Grad PLUS Program, with some allowances for continued borrowing by current Grad PLUS borrowers
- Limiting the Parent PLUS program to parent borrowers whose student borrows the maximum annual amount of unsubsidized Direct Loans in an academic year, and establishing aggregate loan limits for the program
- Requiring institutions participating in the Direct Loan program to take part in risk-sharing payments to ED
Call to Action: Tell Congress to Protect Higher Education & Student Aid in Budget Reconciliation
As Congress continues its work on the budget reconciliation process, it is critical that your members of Congress hear from you about how the potential reforms will impact your students. We urge you to reach out to your members in both the House and Senate to express your concerns with the House proposal. Although the Senate education committee has not yet made its own reconciliation language public, your senators must hear about the negative impacts that these provisions would have on students and institutions. We encourage you to ask your representative in the House to vote against the current proposal, and to ask your senator to ensure the concerning House provisions are not included in any Senate reconciliation bill.
Resources
NASFAA Statement
NASFAA Interim President & CEO Beth Maglione issued a statement in response to the reconciliation proposal introduced by the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
NASFAA Coverage
In the coming weeks, NASFAA will publish additional articles covering specific provisions in more detail. NASFAA will also continue to monitor and cover budget reconciliation proposals introduced in the Senate.
- May 7, 2025 - Reconciliation Deep Dive: House Committee Proposes New Institutional Accountability Agreement and Regulatory Relief
- May 6, 2025 - Reconciliation Deep Dive: House Committee Proposes Major Overhaul of Federal Student Loans, Repayment, and PSLF
- May 5, 2025 - Reconciliation Deep Dive: House Committee Proposes Major Changes to Pell Grant, Campus-Based Aid, Need-Analysis, and Student Eligibility
- April 29, 2025 - House Education Committee Releases Initial Reconciliation Bill
- April 29, 2025 - Statement on Federal Student Aid Cuts in House GOP Reconciliation Bill
- April 11, 2025 - Reconciliation Update: House and Senate Agree to Narrowed Budget Blueprint
- April 10, 2025 - NASFAA Urges Congress to Preserve PSLF Program
- April 1, 2025 - What Reconciliation Could Mean For Higher Education Funding
- February 18, 2025 - House Budget Committee Begins Reconciliation Process
- February 6, 2025 - OTC Inside The Beltway: Working Through the Trump Administration's Latest Effort to Dismantle Education Department
Congressional Links
Publication Date: 5/7/2025