The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump in July 2025, will cut $300 billion from federal higher education programs over the next decade. This massive cut will make student loan repayment more expensive; limit borrowers’ access to postsecondary education; and exacerbate racial, gender, and socioeconomic inequities. The act makes these cuts primarily through reforms to student loans, including new caps on graduate and parent lending and repayment plans with loan terms as long as 30 years.
Last week, the Center for American Progress submitted comments in response to proposed regulations urging the U.S. Department of Education to maximize the funding available to graduate student loan borrowers within the statutory framework and make other changes to the proposed regulations to protect and lower costs for student loan borrowers.
CAP’s analysis, which includes new data on the share of graduate students affected by new loan limits by degree program, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and veteran status, shows that new annual and aggregate loan limits will leave many graduate students with funding gaps, forcing greater reliance on private student loans, which are more costly, have fewer protections, and are not universally accessible. Furthermore, these gaps are not evenly distributed: They fall most heavily on women, students of color, LGBTQI+ students, students with disabilities, and veterans. Without further changes, the regulations will undermine workforce pipelines and high-need fields such as social work, teaching, and health professions. CAP recommends an approach to defining “graduate” and “professional” degrees that would more accurately capture programs that are essential to licensed professions and avoid arbitrary distinctions that leave similar students with different borrowing options.
The comments also include recommendations to:
- Improve the loan rehabilitation process and make it easier for borrowers to avoid and exit default.
- Broaden interim exceptions for legacy loan limits to cover transfer students, part-time students, and Health Education Assistance Loan (HEAL) borrowers.
- Standardize the definition of “full-time” enrollment for the purpose of prorating loan limits, so students are treated consistently across institutions and programs.
- Maintain proposed monthly payment calculations for married borrowers enrolled in the new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP).
- Strengthen borrower communications, consumer protections, and servicer oversight so borrowers understand their options and are not harmed by servicing errors.
- Allow time spent in deferment or forbearance under the RAP to count for Public Service Loan Forgiveness buyback, ensuring that temporary hardship does not permanently disadvantage public service borrowers.
In this comment, CAP outlines a variety of changes that could be made to the proposed rules to mitigate the harms of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and lower costs for students seeking to better their lives and economic prospects through postsecondary education.
Click here to read CAP’s comment letter.