Senate HELP Committee Introduces Draft Reconciliation Bill
Jun 16, 2025, 14:27
by
AACOM Government Relations
- On June 10, 2025, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee released its draft version of budget reconciliation legislation targeting higher education and other programs.
- Both the House and Senate versions propose major changes to student loans, including eliminating the Grad PLUS loan program and PSLF eligibility and capping federal borrowing.
- The Senate proposal caps professional loans at $50,000 per year and $200,000 total while the House version caps professional loans at $150,000 total with no annual cap.
- The Senate’s accountability provision significantly differs from the House's risk-sharing approach. Under the Senate proposal, a professional program would lose eligibility for federal student loans if its graduates’ average earnings ten years after enrollment fall below the average salary of 25–34-year-old bachelor’s degree holders. In contrast, the House bill proposed a risk-sharing model based on a debt-to-earnings ratio that financially penalizes institutions for unpaid student loans incurred by their graduates.
- Last week, the House also moved to address potential Senate roadblocks for their reconciliation bill through adoption of a “deeming resolution” incorporating technical fixes to ensure their bill complies with the Senate’s Byrd Rule.
- For more information on the HELP Committee proposal and a comparison with the House bill, see AACOM’s summary. We will continue to advocate against provisions that will harm the OME community and encourage you to contact your congressional offices to share how these changes will make it harder to train the next generation of doctors.
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Administration’s FY26 Budget Includes Restructuring and Spending Cuts
Jun 16, 2025, 14:28
by
AACOM Government Relations
- On May 30, 2025, the administration released further details on its fiscal year (FY) 2026 Budget Request as a follow-up to the “Skinny Budget” released in early May.
- The U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) budget request provides $94.7 billion, a $32.65 billion cut from $127.35 billion in FY24, including:
- $27.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a cut of $19.8 billion from $47.3 billion in FY24, while reorganizing it into eight Institutes. It would also implement a 15 percent cap on facilities and administration research costs.
- $4.3 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a $4.9 billion cut from $9.2 billion in FY24.
- The budget would reorganize HRSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), several CDC centers and more under the newly created Administration for a Healthy America (AHA). The budget justification for AHA is $20.6 billion and includes:
- The elimination of 14 Health Workforce Programs under Title VII and VIII.
- The elimination of the Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education program.
- Increases to the Teaching Health Centers Graduate Medical Education and the National Health Service Corps.
- The U.S. Department of Education (ED) budget request for FY26 provides $66.7 billion, a $16.6 billion cut from $83.3 billion in FY24, which reflects the desire to wind down ED, and includes $949.67 million in discretionary funds for higher education programs.
- AACOM has concerns with the elimination of and funding reductions for key workforce programs and is developing an advocacy strategy to protect them.
- For more information, see AACOM’s summary.
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Senate Holds Hearings on NIH and ED Funding
Jun 16, 2025, 14:29
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AACOM Government Relations
- On June 10, 2025, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, testified during a Senate subcommittee hearing on the NIH FY26 budget request.
- Director Bhattacharya defended the request and its aim to streamline research, focus on preventing cancer deaths and better understand childhood diseases.
- On June 3, 2025, ED Secretary Linda McMahon testified during another Senate subcommittee hearing on the ED FY26 budget request.
- Secretary McMahon outlined a plan to reduce ED’s discretionary budget to streamline operations and transfer certain federal functions to other agencies, like moving student loan borrowing to the Small Business Administration (SBA).