Congress Opens the Credential Floodgates6/18/2025
By Liam Knox June 16, 2025 Lawmakers are poised to extend Pell eligibility to short-term credential programs. With few guardrails in place, it could incentivize an explosion in unaccredited and for-profit providers. The Senate’s proposed higher education bill departed from the House version in many ways, but one provision remained almost completely untouched. That was workforce Pell, which would extend eligibility for the federal financial aid grant to students enrolled in short-term credential programs running between eight and 15 weeks long.
If it passes, workforce Pell would give federal financial aid to likely hundreds of thousands more students a year and provide aid to many community college students in particular who don’t currently qualify. It would also incentivize an explosion of interest in the burgeoning credentials sector. With few guardrails against for-profit and unaccredited providers, that could mean a flood of unvetted programs receiving federal funds to enroll vulnerable students. By AACC Government Relations Staff June 11, 2025 The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Tuesday evening unveiled its reconciliation proposal containing changes to higher education student aid and repayment policies.
While the bill builds on the higher education provisions of the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, it fully rejects the House bill’s problematic changes to Pell Grant eligibility based on enrollment intensity and institutional risk-sharing — a significant win for community colleges. The bill also includes new eligibility for Workforce Pell grants, a change long sought by community colleges, and changes to loan and repayment policies modeled on the House legislation. Altogether, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) thanks the Senate for heeding its sector’s concerns and for proposing a bill that is far more palatable for community colleges than its House counterpart. AACC is deeply thankful to the scores of community college leaders who communicated their concerns to the Senate. The particulars in this bill are due, in significant part, to dedicated advocacy from community college officials. Pell grants The Senate rejected the House bill’s redefinition of “full-time” as 15 credit hours per term for Pell Grant eligibility, as well as its elimination of grant eligibility for less-than-halftime students. Taken together, these changes would have reduced or eliminated Pell grants for more than one million community college students. Preserving Pell, in this respect, was AACC’s top priority once the House had passed is measure. FROM: ICCTA Trustees Association UPDATED: Tue, Jun 3, 2025 at 10:45 AM As the spring legislative session concluded on May 31, Senate Bill 1988 was not called to the House floor. The initiative, introduced by Gov. JB Pritzker on February 19, advanced rapidly in the months that followed but was ultimately delayed amid end-of-session constraints.
Challenges to Passage Over the past three months, several political and procedural dynamics ultimately prevented SB 1988 from being called to the House floor:
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