{"id":2600445,"date":"2026-05-08T15:13:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T19:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-are-trying-to-repeal-trump-admins-college-affordability-protections\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T15:21:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T19:21:54","slug":"democrats-are-trying-to-repeal-trump-admins-college-affordability-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-are-trying-to-repeal-trump-admins-college-affordability-protections\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems Try To Nix Trump Admin&#8217;s College Affordability Protections"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-are-trying-to-repeal-trump-admins-college-affordability-protections%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2600445&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A group of congressional Democrats is planning too use the Congressional Review act to repeal a new Department of education final rule aimed at limiting federal student loan borrowing and replacing the Grad PLUS program, alongside changes meant to streamline repayment. The Democrats-backed by Sens. Jeff Merkley and Angela Alsobrooks and Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, John Mannion, and Lauren Underwood-argue the limits will make it harder for people entering public service careers, such as teaching and firefighting, to afford graduate training.<\/p>\n<p>The Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent, defending the rule, disputes those claims, saying most graduate-level teachers and essentially no graduate-level firefighters woudl be affected based on the governance\u2019s data. The article also describes the rule\u2019s intent as cutting costs and preventing colleges from charging tuition levels that are ultimately covered by federal lending, citing large tuition increases over time and claiming debt burdens have grown where program outcomes have not matched costs.<\/p>\n<p>After the rule was announced (though not taking effect until July 1), some schools reportedly began adjusting: UC Irvine cut tuition for two business degrees, the University of Kansas plans to use endowment resources to offer low-interest loans rather than relying on federal borrowing, and Santa Clara University Law launched a tuition scholarship to ensure incoming students can cover costs despite the new limits. the Democrats say they must wait for Congress to formally receive the rule to begin the CRA process, which will start a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/george-santos-former-aide-facing-federal-charges-after-impersonating-mccarthy-staff-member\/\" title=\"George Santos, ex-aide, charged for posing as McCarthy staff member.\">60-day review period<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A group of congressional Democrats announced a resolution Thursday to repeal Trump administration rules designed to cap <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-reasons-making-taxpayers-pay-off-student-loans-is-a-rotten-idea\/\" title=\"5 Reasons Making Taxpayers Pay Off Student Loans Is A Rotten Idea\">student loans<\/a> and stop the \u201cunlimited tuition\u201d scam colleges and universities run at the expense of the American taxpayer.<\/p>\n<p>Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., along with Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., John Mannion, D-N.Y., and Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/bonamici-merkley-mannion-underwood-alsobrooks-launch-effort-to-overturn-student-loan-rule\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">say they will introduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution<\/a> to repeal the Department of Education\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/04\/30\/trump-admin-to-stop-universities-from-charging-unlimited-tuition-at-taxpayer-expense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent final rule<\/a> limiting the ability of colleges and universities to charge exorbitant amounts in tuition, while also streamlining loan repayment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor years, Democrats have\u00a0purported\u00a0to care about student debt. But now, they\u2019ve reaffirmed what we\u2019ve been saying.\u00a0That it\u00a0was never about helping students but rather buying votes. It was a way to buy off people, not truly help them,\u201d Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent told The Federalist. \u201cDemocrats don\u2019t care about helping students,\u00a0and they certainly\u00a0don\u2019t care about taxpayers. They want to keep students in debt, colleges with fat coffers, and then cry wolf during election time that the loan forgiveness is the only option to help borrowers. With our\u00a0changes, we remove one of the Democrats\u2019 key election issues, and that\u2019s what they are\u00a0really\u00a0scared\u00a0of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The group of Democrats claims that the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >loan caps affect public service jobs<\/a> like \u201cnurses, teachers, [and] firefighters,\u201d who will, they say, now not be able to afford entering those professions.<\/p>\n<p>However, according to Kent, the actual numbers do not support this conclusion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese Democrats who are attempting to repeal our well thought-out rule are hypocrites and are using\u00a0lies\u00a0and scare tactics.\u00a094% of\u00a0graduate-level\u00a0teachers are not impacted by the loan caps.\u00a0And when is the last time you heard of fire fighters taking on graduate-level debt? You don\u2019t. That\u2019s because\u00a0100% of graduate-level fire service programs are not impacted,\u201d he said. \u201cThese data show the Democrats are either lying or are totally uninformed about the reality of what they are saying.\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n<p>As The Federalist <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/04\/30\/trump-admin-to-stop-universities-from-charging-unlimited-tuition-at-taxpayer-expense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>, the rule caps student loan borrowing for graduate and professional students, allows universities to establish their own loan caps based on the value of the program, streamlines loan repayment, and eliminates the Grad PLUS program, which allowed students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance.<\/p>\n<p>The rule came after decades of colleges and universities driving up tuition costs (343 percent increase since 2005), unchecked, leaving the American taxpayer \u2014 regardless of his education status \u2014 to pay for it. The education system also piled mountains of debt on students who were receiving degrees that did not provide the access to high-paying jobs needed to actually pay off the student loans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to lower the cost of higher education by instituting reasonable loan limits for post-baccalaureate\u00a0programs,\u201d Kent noted. \u201cWe know that for decades, colleges and universities have taken advantage of the Grad PLUS program by standing up expensive graduate programs that have little or no return on\u00a0investment\u00a0for the borrower. This has\u00a0left too many students with\u00a0unmanageable\u00a0debt but \u2026 padded the coffers of many colleges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Educational institutions knew they could continue fleecing the American people because they knew the federal government would continue to provide loans to cover whatever tuition sticker price they had. Loan caps stop that scam and could require students to look elsewhere for funding, which Democrats challenging the rule admit. But the reality is that colleges will now be forced to rein in their absurd tuition costs in order to attract students to sign up for their programs.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the loan caps not taking effect until July 1, some schools have already started taking action related to the rule.<\/p>\n<p>The University of California, Irvine, cut tuition for two business degrees by more 20 percent after the loan cap announcement, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/a-university-cut-tuition-by-over-20-after-republicans-sharply-limited-grad-school-aid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to The Chronicle of Higher Education.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Kansas <a href=\"https:\/\/law.ku.edu\/news\/article\/new-loan-program-eliminates-private-banks-and-co-signers-for-university-of-kansas-law-students\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">will start<\/a> using its endowment to offer low-interest rate student loans, as opposed to relying on federal dollars \u2014 a major goal of Republicans in education policy.<\/p>\n<p>The Santa Clara University Law School also <a href=\"https:\/\/law.scu.edu\/news-events\/news\/2025\/santa-clara-law-launches-groundbreaking-pledge-scholarship-for-fall-2026-incoming-students.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">launched<\/a> a \u201cpledge scholarship\u201d offering a $16,000 tuition scholarship to every first<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/law-school-student-letter-details-culture-of-bullying-at-university-of-north-carolina\/\" title=\"Law School Student Letter Details \u2018Culture Of Bullying\u2019 At ... Of North Carolina\">-year law student<\/a>, stating, \u201cThe PLEDGE Scholarship was designed to ensure that next year\u2019s incoming class has access to the funds they need to cover the cost of tuition for Santa Clara Law despite new federal loan limits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The congressional Democrats said they will have to wait to introduce the CRA until \u201cthe rule is officially received by Congress,\u201d triggering the 60-day review window for the CRA.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pa-court-rules-improperly-dated-mail-ballots-must-be-counted\/\" title=\"PA Court ...s Improperly Dated Mail Ballots Must Be Counted\">previously covered education<\/a> and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats announced a resolution to repeal Trump student-loan and tuition rules<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":2600446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-08-141206.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[79343,3685,79344,32783,32640],"class_list":["post-2600445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-college-affordability","tag-democrats","tag-higher-education-reform","tag-student-loans","tag-trump-administration"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-08-141206.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2600445"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2600454,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600445\/revisions\/2600454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2600446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2600445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2600445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2600445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}