FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Allie Arcese
Sr. Director, Strategic Communications
(202) 785-6954
[email protected]

WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 29, 2025 — The House Education & Workforce Committee on Monday released its portion of the reconciliation bill, which proposes several extensive changes to the Department of Education (ED) programs and initiatives — including to the federal Pell Grant program, federal student loan system, need analysis, and more.

The committee is scheduled to mark up the legislation on Tuesday. This is the first in a series of House committee markups for the eventual bill, where committees will address the sections that fall within their respective jurisdictions. 

In response to this news, NASFAA Interim President & CEO Beth Maglione provided the following statement:

“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.

While the financial aid community supports some proposals, such as certain fixes to the need analysis formula that ensure Pell Grants only go to the neediest students, the benefits of those changes are far outweighed by other restrictions in eligibility, ending the subsidy for student loans for undergraduate students, eliminating the Grad PLUS loan program, and sunsetting unemployment and economic hardship deferments for struggling borrowers — to name just a few.

There are still multiple steps required before any of these changes would become law, making the reported July 1, 2025, effective date for many of these changes — specifically those that would impact the Pell Grant program — unlikely. While the likelihood is low, the fact that lawmakers would even consider implementing these changes for the upcoming school year is deeply concerning. To be clear, the vast majority of financial aid offices have already packaged financial aid offers for next year’s students. In fact, some schools have 2025-26 aid disbursements scheduled in the next few weeks.

Making these changes at all would turn the clock back for student access; making them now would result in chaos for both schools and students. We encourage our members to contact their representatives and urge them to vote against this bill.”

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About NASFAA
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) is a nonprofit membership organization that represents more than 29,000 financial aid professionals at approximately 3,000 colleges, universities, and career schools across the country. NASFAA member institutions serve nine out of every 10 undergraduates in the U.S. Based in Washington, D.C., NASFAA is the only national association with a primary focus on student aid legislation, regulatory analysis, and training for financial aid administrators.