By a 51-50 vote, with the tiebreaker cast by Vice President J.D. Vance, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed the so-called “One Big Beautiful” reconciliation bill.
Shortly before the final vote was tallied, Senate Republicans released near-final text of the bill, which did not make any significant changes to the higher education provisions compared to the penultimate version of the bill.
While the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) did not endorse the legislation, which makes deep cuts to student loan programs – and perhaps more importantly to community college students, SNAP and Medicaid – the higher education provisions turned out about as well as could be expected from the community college perspective under the circumstances.
Workforce Pell remains
As previously reported in Community College Daily, the Senate legislation does not contain the highly damaging Pell eligibility provisions contained in the House bill and employs an accountability system that is far preferable to the House’s risk-sharing scheme. In fact, the Senate made positive tweaks to its accountability system in the penultimate draft.
Most notably, only earnings of program completers will now be considered when judging programs, as opposed to all program entrants. AACC had long sought that change when applying any earnings standard to programs.
After a brief scare, provisions to establish workforce Pell grants remained in the bill, but without extending eligibility to non-accredited providers, which is another big positive. The bill also provides $10.5 billion to address a funding shortfall in the Pell program. Features of both the Senate and House bills, these provisions are all but assured in a final reconciliation bill.
Eyes back on the House
The House Rules Committee was set to consider the Senate-passed bill on Tuesday afternoon, setting the stage for floor debate. House Republicans are under tremendous pressure to pass the Senate bill as-is so that it might land on the president’s desk by July 4. But there are many hurdles to overcome, including deep concerns from both the ultra-conservative and moderate wings of the Republican House caucus.
Despite strong differences between the House and Senate education committees on certain items, particularly accountability, House Education and Workforce Chairman Tim Walberg released a statement shortly after the Senate vote that seems to indicate support for the Senate version of the bill, but it leaves open the possibility that he would seek changes to the bill as the House considers it.
Strong member advocacy
AACC thanks its members for their tireless advocacy that has resulted in the exclusion of the worst aspects of House legislation from the current, and perhaps final, version of the reconciliation bill.
