July 3, 2025 | WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House of Representatives passed in a 218-214 vote the “Big Terrible Bill” that delivers $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations while gutting essential healthcare, nutrition assistance, and education programs American families rely on. The bill includes $300 billion in cuts to federal education programs that will raise costs for students and working families with student debt and limit access to higher education. The legislation also makes unprecedented cuts to the budget of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—slashing the funding of an agency that has returned at least $21 billion to consumers since opening its doors in 2011.
In response, SBPC Policy Director Aissa Canchola Bañez released the following statement:
“The American people demanded lower costs, and what did they get? A brutal bill that will push millions off their healthcare, leave children to go hungry, and push dreams of a college education even further out of reach for working people across this country. It is crystal clear—Congressional Republicans’ bill chooses to bankroll even more tax cuts for their billionaire cronies at the expense of students and American families. To each and every policymaker who supported this cruel bill, shame on you.
“Today’s vote is a crushing blow to the millions of Americans struggling to pay for the basics. Make no mistake, this bill will drive patients deeper into medical debt, borrowers deeper into student debt, and working families further into the red to pay for higher energy costs and even higher grocery bills. Americans won’t forget this betrayal.”
The Senate bill makes $300 billion in cuts to higher education and guts critical protections by:
- Limiting borrowers’ ability to pause payments when experiencing unemployment or financial hardship.
- Gutting the Graduate PLUS loan program and limiting access to Parent PLUS loans, pushing families into predatory private debt or out of higher education entirely.
- Making monthly student loan payments even more expensive for new borrowers by eliminating the SAVE plan and replacing all other Income-Driven Repayment plans with a new, more expensive Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) that forces new borrowers to repay their loans for 30 years. Beginning on July 1, 2028, current borrowers enrolled in SAVE and other Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) based plans will be pushed into Income-Based Repayment, which is even more expensive for some borrowers.
- Weakening Borrower Defense to Repayment and Closed School Discharge protections, making it easier for predatory for-profit schools to cheat students and saddle them with mountains of debt.
- Allowing Pell Grants to fund shady, extra-short workforce training programs that have been found to leave students with low wages and high debt loads.
- Eliminating Pell Grant eligibility for low-income students with certain other grant aid, making higher education even more expensive for low-income families.
- Dramatically slashes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding by capping the amount of money, at 6.5 percent down from 12 percent, that the agency can request from the Federal Reserve.
Further Reading
SBPC release of letter to HELP committee with preliminary analysis of impact of Senate bill proposal: Senate Republicans Double Down on House’s Cruel Agenda, Push Reconciliation Bill That Jacks Up Costs for Students and Families to Bankroll Billionaire Tax Breaks
SBPC statement on House reconciliation bill passage: House Republicans Rush Passage of Massive Reconciliation Bill Delivering Tax Cuts to Billionaires on the Backs of Students and Working Families
SBPC Deep Dive on the House reconciliation bill’s impact on student loan repayment: House Reconciliation Bill Makes Paying for College More Expensive and Risky for Students and Working Families
SBPC’s economic analysis of the student loan provisions in the House Republican draft budget reconciliation bill is available here: https://protectborrowers.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Economic-Analysis-of-EW-Recon-Markup_04-29-2025.pdf
The Century Foundation and SBPC Deep Dive on the implications of the proposals on the private student loan market: Private Lenders Would Cash In on Congress’s Student Loan Changes
SBPC blog on elimination of Grad PLUS loans: Eliminating Grad Plus Loans Without Making Higher Education More Affordable Would Be a Disaster for Students and Borrowers
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About Student Borrower Protection Center
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) is a nonprofit organization focused on eliminating the burden of student debt for millions of Americans. We engage in advocacy, policymaking, and litigation strategy to rein in industry abuses, protect borrowers’ rights, and advance racial and economic justice.
Learn more at protectborrowers.org or follow SBPC on Twitter @theSBPC.