CONGRESS

By a 12 to 11 vote, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee advanced several nominations for the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and U.S. Department of Labor to the full Senate floor.

The House Committee on Education and Workforce held a markup of H.R. 3453, the Empower Charter School Educators to Lead Act, H.R. 2516, the Accreditation for College Excellence (ACE) Act of 2025 and H.R. 4054, the Accreditation Choice and Innovation Act. The former bill was passed by a 20 to 15 vote, and the latter two bills by a 21 to 15 vote.

The Senate Budget Committee Democrats released information on Senate Parliamentarian “Byrd” rulings on the HELP Committee and Finance Committee portions of the budget reconciliation bill. The HELP Committee rulings related to the bill’s student loan repayment plans, Pell eligibility for certain non-citizens and Workforce Pell. The Finance Committee rulings related to exemptions to the higher education institution endowment tax and the tax credit for contributions to scholarship organizations.

ADMINISTRATION

ED announced it will launch the first round of beta testing for the 2026–27 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form in August and committed to officially launching this FAFSA by October 1.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced that ED has collected nearly $200 million in student loan payments since resuming collections on defaulted Federal loans in May according to POLITICO.

Sec. McMahon issued guidance stating that ED will now allow all states to request reimbursements for spending the remainder of COVID-relief funds to schools, returning to the liquidation process in place prior to its issuance of the March 28 letter to State Education Chiefs.

COURTS

In a 6 to 3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that judges can only grant relief to the parties who brought a particular lawsuit and may not extend those decisions to protect other individuals without going through the process of converting a suit into a class action.

In a 6 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund, which funds the E-Rate program and subsidizes telephone and internet service for low-income and rural Americans.

In a 6 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that school systems are required to provide parents with a notice that allow them to opt-out their children from class when course material conflicts with their religious beliefs.

EVENTS

Penn Hill Group plans on providing clients a summary of the following events next week:

June 30 – July 2: Department of Education negotiated rulemaking sessions to develop student regulations related to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)