Welcome to the report card with Nat Malmas, the Education Policy podcast from the American Enterprise Institute.

About a month ago, the House passed the one big, beautiful bill act,

a massive bill aimed at advancing President Trump's domestic policy agenda. Now the bill is with

the Senate. Included in the bill are huge changes to federal student lending. In particular,

the bill makes drastic changes to loan limits,

repayment plans, and rules for which programs are eligible for participation in the federal

student loan program. There's a lot here. So to break it all down, I invited my colleague,

Preston Cooper, back onto the podcast. Preston is a senior fellow here at

AEI where he studies higher education policy. He also serves on the board of visitors for

George Mason University. Preston Cooper, welcome back to the report card. Hey, thank you for having me

again. All right. So Preston, about a month ago, the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as part of its budget reconciliation process.

Just a general question to start with, what is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act?

And why did they name it that?

So the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a comprehensive tax and spending package that is being moved through the budget reconciliation

process, which means that they don't need any Democratic support in the Senate to pass it.

So this is a way that you can kind of load up a lot of priorities of the presidents and of the

Republican Party into a bill that can basically pass a lot of priorities of the presidents and of the Republican Party

into a bill that can basically pass a lot easier than it would be able to otherwise. And as we

see, there's a lot of higher ed provisions in there, which have flown under the radar a little bit.

Totally under the radar. I mean, there's been a lot going on. So, you know, you might,

you might excuse it, but there is a lot going on on student loans and, you know, you might excuse it, but there is a lot going on on student loans and you

hardly see a word about it, except from you. And the one big beautiful bill act, I mean, it is,

...