How will the reconciliation bill affect student loans?

Make Me Smart

Marketplace

News, Business

4.6 • 5.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every day this week, we’re going to take a closer look at the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which aims to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda. It proposes a tax cut and increased spending for border security and the military. It also includes cuts to health, nutrition, education and clean energy programs. Today, we explain the rules around what provisions can go into reconciliation bills, and where the bill currently stands in the legislation process now. Plus, we answer questions from listeners on how the bill could affect their student loans and access to higher education.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

“Senate sidesteps parliamentarian, widens reach of CRA” from Roll Call
“Republicans face critical week on Trump megabill” from The Hill
“The Senate is assessing the "Big Beautiful Bill" line by line to eliminate non-budgetary measures” from Marketplace
“Senate Republican education plan may trigger ‘avalanche of student loan defaults,’ expert says” from CNBC

Got a question for the hosts? Email [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Transcript

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1:01.7	Hey everybody. I'm Rima Gres. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense.
1:07.4	And I'm Kimberly Adams. Thanks everyone for joining us. It's Monday, June 16th. As we mentioned last week,
1:13.1	this week is going to be all about the reconciliation bill, also known as the one big, beautiful bill act.
1:21.2	And it is so big that we thought it required more of a deep dive. Now, yes, the bill is mostly about extending
1:29.4	the 2017 tax cuts, but there's so much other stuff in it that's worth your attention and
1:35.6	figuring out whether or not you care enough about it to talk to your member of Congress. So each
1:39.8	day this week, we're going to break down one part of the bill and answer questions from you,
1:44.6	our listeners, along the way.
1:47.1	Yes. And just to back up, I feel like reconciliation is one of those DC things that experts
1:51.2	and reporters talk about like everyone knows what it means. And I know we've, y'all have talked
1:55.9	about it a bunch on the show, but there's just so much info to keep in our heads these days.
1:59.8	So just as a refresher,
2:01.6	reconciliation bill, it is a special type of budget legislation that can pass with a simple
	...

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