E&W Blog

The Education and Workforce Committee’s Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan—a vital portion of President Trump’s big, beautiful bill—puts savings back in taxpayers’ pockets. This bill not only saves taxpayers nearly $350 billion, it also brings much-needed reform in three key areas: simplified loan repayment, streamlined student loan options, and accountability for students and taxpayers.
 
Here's what they are saying about the Committee’s vital portion of the big, beautiful bill:
 
“Student loans have also become one of the great policy failures of the age. Even before the pandemic, fewer than half of borrowers were paying down their debt. The federal student loan balance sheet has ballooned to $1.7 trillion, double what it was 15 years ago when Democrats used ObamaCare to nationalize the industry… Enter House Republicans, who this week advanced a slate of reforms in the Education and Workforce Committee that they plan to attach to reconciliation. The goal is to hold colleges accountable for student outcomes and curb the open-ended loan buffet.” – The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
 
“The current system continues to treat all programs equally, regardless of their track records in delivering student success. This proposal offers a long-needed course correction by linking federal support to measured outcomes. As debate over the details continues, one thing is clear: this proposal represents a serious effort to modernize higher education policy. It’s time to move past the status quo and toward a system that protects students, respects taxpayer investment, and rewards institutions that deliver real economic value.” – Beth Akers, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
 
“…Congress has a unique opportunity to enact targeted education reforms that appropriately reduce federal intervention in education while also addressing inefficiencies and restoring trust in the use of taxpayer funds… repealing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and ending PLUS Loans reduce unnecessary federal involvement in higher education that only encourage higher tuition and more student debt. Further, adopting key provisions of the College Cost Reduction Act will restore accountability in higher education, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.” – Lindsey Burke, Director, Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation
 
 “The Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan provides systematic and beneficial reform to America’s student loan system, and to higher education as a whole. It is a welcome complement to ED’s new policy initiatives to restore accountability to federal student loans. We hope it swiftly becomes law.” – National Association of Scholars
 
“…[T]his is a home run of a bill for the American people." – Kevin Hessent, Director of the National Economic Council
 
“The ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ is a positive and powerful legislative package that will help entrepreneurs and small business owners compete, innovative, and support their employees. The package brings together the various pro-growth and good-government titles advanced by House committees and reflects the priorities of entrepreneurs by offering tax relief and certainty, regulatory accountability, energy affordability and abundance, the right-sizing of various government programs and agencies, and investment policies that supercharge innovation and the modernization of U.S. infrastructure.” – Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
 
“House Republicans’ big, beautiful reconciliation bill is exactly what the country needs to jumpstart the economy and guarantee the safety and prosperity of Americans for decades to come. It helps people of all backgrounds but especially small businesses, the backbone of our economy… It will empower Main Street to expand, hire, raise wages, and reinvest in their communities, while also providing significant tax relief for ordinary folks. All Republicans should unite to support this historic reconciliation bill. We need Tax Cuts Now.”– Job Creators Network
 
“[H]ouse Republicans are pitching a sensible path to reducing costs and borrowing limits and making it easier for borrowers to pay back loans. … the plan stops far short of the Biden-era plan to wipe out $189 billion in unpaid loans. As it should: wiping out nearly $200 billion in student loans was a bizarre scheme where low-income workers, blue-collar workers and workers without college degrees, among everyone else, would bailout those with a much higher earning capacity. It was unfair to those who hustled to pay off their loans. And it would have had disastrous inflationary effects.” – Matt Fleming, columnist for the Southern California News Group
 
“This legislation represents a clear return to an America First Agenda. President Trump, Chairman Walberg, and other America First members of Congress have been working tirelessly to put America’s recovery back on track, and this legislation does that. This legislation includes commonsense policy solutions that invest in American workers. Expanding Workforce Pell grants to workforce-aligned students and restoring Workforce Pell funding shortfalls help improve workforce training at all levels. Student loan limits, income contingent repayment, performance-based ‘PROMISE’ grants to institutions, and reversing the Biden-era illegal student loan forgiveness activities are policies that work to create a drastically more affordable 4-year college degree.” – Michael Shires, Ph.D., Vice Chair of Educational Opportunity for the America First Policy Institute
 
“AFP would like to thank the House Education and Workforce Committee for bringing forward a package to revamp our broken federal student loan system. The measure will save American taxpayers over $330 billion, bringing greater accountability to the student loan system by removing the most problematic loan repayment pathways, capping excessive borrowing, and even bringing accountability to institutions of higher education that benefit greatly from the current system yet provide poor return on investment. These changes would put America on greater financial footing immediately while opening the door for future reforms.” – Americans for Prosperity
 
“As House committees work on their respective portions of the Budget Reconciliation bill, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) commends the Committee on Education and Workforce for finding savings of more than $350 billion over 10 years and adopting much-needed reform in three key areas: Simplified loan repayment, Streamlined student loan options, and, Accountability for students and taxpayers.” – Center for Urban Renewal and Education
 
“The Education and Workforce Committee has put forward a package of thoughtful and money-saving reforms that will begin to rationalize federal student loan programs while helping to reduce the cost and improve the quality of higher education.” – Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
 
“For years, taxpayers have poured billions into a broken student aid system that rewards colleges no matter the outcome. The Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan finally puts students and taxpayers back at the center—simplifying repayment and holding colleges accountable when their programs don’t deliver value. If institutions want federal dollars, they should prove their degrees are worth the cost. We're especially encouraged by the provision that blocks costly new regulations and reins in executive overreach. This is a long-overdue step toward restoring integrity, accountability, and the rule of law to higher education.” – Defense Freedom Institute
 
“The House Education and Workforce Committee’s package lays the groundwork for a more responsible, transparent, and student-centered higher education system.” – Madison Marino Doan, Senior Research Associate in the Center for Education Policy, The Heritage Foundation

“NTU commends the House Education & Workforce Committee for passing an incredibly strong reconciliation proposal that will benefit America’s students and help deliver tax certainty to all taxpayers. The bill ends the illegal and unfair student loan bailout scheme, includes targeted regulatory relief, and reforms to some spending programs. Taken together, it delivers more than $300 billion in savings over the ten-year budget window. We’re proud to support this legislation as written and look forward to supporting it further when it is combined into the comprehensive tax relief package.” – Thomas Aiello, Senior Director of Government Affairs, National Taxpayers Union
 
“As organizations representing a broad range of aviation stakeholders, we write to express our strong support for several flight education-related provisions in the reconciliation package, Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan. This language would greatly assist students receiving an education to become a commercial airline pilot. By allowing students in certified, high-quality undergraduate programs that provide flight training to access loan amounts for professional students, this bill will make it possible for more people, especially those not well represented in the industry, to pursue the pilot profession.” – 14 Aviation Organizations
 
“We are encouraged by the bill’s efforts to strengthen accountability, improve loan repayment structures, and focus on student outcomes, and we appreciate the Committee’s leadership in taking important steps toward a higher education system that better serves students, families, and the public.” – Arnold Ventures
 
“We support the expansion of Pell Grants to short-term credentialing programs (‘Workforce Pell’) because of their demonstrated value to students and employers and are encouraged it has been included in the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce budget reconciliation bill. One in five jobs requires an occupational license, yet current Pell Grant rules often exclude shorter training programs that are sufficient to meet licensing requirements, limiting access to aid. … Expanding Pell eligibility would reduce financial barriers to credentialing for individuals pursuing targeted, short-duration programs aligned with workforce needs.” – Emily Dickens, J.D., Chief of Staff, Head of Government Affairs, and Corporate Secretary, Society for Human Resource Management
 
“We are especially pleased with the bill’s provisions to repeal burdensome federal regulations (including the 90-10 Rule, Borrower Defense, and Gainful Employment), establish new accountability measures for institutions, and reduce the overall cost of student aid programs. By establishing fiscally responsible reforms for programs such as Direct Loans and Pell Grants, Congress will preserve their long-term availability for all traditional and non-traditional students in the future.” – Ken Styron, President, Columbia Southern University