Federal Updates & Changes

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The Office of Financial Aid strives to provide accurate and timely updates on how new legislation may impact your financial aid. We will provide summaries of changes as well as provide resources to find additional details. This page will be updated as we receive additional information from verifiable sources such as the U.S. Department of Education.

One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Signed into law: July 4, 2025

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is the budget reconciliation package that was approved by congress to ensure continued funding for many federal expenditures. While it includes a broad range of topics and policy changes, we are focusing specifically on the aspects that impact federal financial aid for higher education. Many of the changes do create new questions for how they will be implemented and how they may impact existing policies and regulations. We highlight some of our unanswered questions and concerns in each section, but we are largely waiting for clarity from the Department of Education for how, when, and for who the changes in the OBBBA will go into effect.

This section will continue to be updated as we learn more related to the OBBBA. Please continue to return to this page for updates and answers to your questions. Last updated September 10 2025.

Changes to Federal Financial Aid

Part of the OBBBA ensures that there is continued funding for the Federal Pell Grant program for the next two years. The Act also created a Workforce Pell program allowing participants in some short-term certificate programs to be eligible for the Federal Pell Grant. Chaminade University does not currently have any programs impacted by this change.

The OBBBA also eliminated Federal Pell Grant eligibility for students who are receiving enough non-federal grants and scholarships to cover 100% or more of their estimated COA and for students with a Student Aid Index at least twice the value of the maximum Pell award in the given award year.

The OBBBA establishes that students enrolled less than full-time will not be eligible for the full loan amount initially offered to them. The loans must be prorated by the school based on the number of credits the student is enrolled in. Students must still be enrolled at least half-time to be eligible for federal loans.

How this change will be implemented is still unclear and we are awaiting further clarification from the Department of Education.

The Grad PLUS Loan program is ending due to the OBBBA. As of July 1, 2026, students will no longer be able to borrow new Grad PLUS Loans. However, students who have been enrolled in a graduate program and receiving Grad PLUS Loans prior to July 1, 2026 will be able to continue to borrow the loans for up to three years or until they complete their program, whichever time period is shorter.

The other change for graduate student borrowers due to the OBBBA is a change to annual and aggregate or lifetime loan limits. Effective July 1, 2026, graduate students will be able to borrow up to $20,500 per academic year in Direct Unsubsidized Loans or up to $50,000 if enrolled in a professional program (i.e. Veterinary Medicine or Doctor of Pharmacy). Also effective July 1, 2026, the aggregate limit for graduate students will be $100,000 in Direct Unsubsidized Loans or, for professional programs, up to $200,000. These new aggregate limits do not include loans borrowed as an undergraduate student. These changes also include legacy provisions allowing borrowers currently enrolled and borrowing Direct Loans to continue to borrow under the current rules for up to three years or until they complete their program.

We are still awaiting further clarification from the Department of Education on determining who qualifies for the legacy provisions, impacts of capitalized interest on aggregate limits, proration of loans for students enrolled less than full-time, and more.

The OBBBA places annual and aggregate limits on Parent PLUS Loans effective July 1, 2026. Parents of dependent undergraduate students will be able to borrow up to $20,000 per academic year for their student and up to $65,000 over that student’s academic career. These limits apply per student, regardless of how many parents are borrowing. A legacy provision is in place for current parent borrowers to continue to borrow Parent PLUS Loans under the current rules for up to three years, or until their student completes their program, whichever happens first.

We are awaiting further clarification from the Department of Education related to the implementation of these changes and how other provisions of the OBBBA will alter Parent PLUS Loans.

The OBBBA reduces the number of repayment plan options to a single income-based plan and an updated standard repayment plan. These new plans will begin July 1, 2026 for any new loans borrowed after that date. Current borrowers can also choose to switch to one of the new plans. If a current borrower does not take out any new loans after July 1, 2026 and is on the current standard, graduated, or extended repayment plan, they may keep that plan until they pay off their loans. Any borrower on a current income-based repayment (IBR) plan can maintain their current plan or switch between other available plans before July 1, 2028. Any outstanding loans utilizing one of the current IBR plans on July 1, 2028 will be converted to the new Repayment Assistant Plan.

The income-based plan, called the Repayment Assistant Plan or RAP, has varying monthly payments based on the borrower’s and their spouse’s AGI. The rate will be between 1-10% of AGI, but cannot be reduced lower than $10 per month. RAP is a 30 year repayment period and payments made under this plan can qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. RAP also eliminates negative amortization so that a borrower’s outstanding debt cannot increase even though they make their monthly payments.

The new Standard Repayment Plan is a fixed repayment plan over 10, 15, 20, or 25 years based on the total amount of borrowed loans or outstanding debt when opting into the Standard Repayment Plan. Any new loans borrowed after July 1, 2026 will automatically be put into the Standard Repayment Plan unless they choose another option when entering repayment.

Gainful Employment for All is a new metric placed on institutions to ensure the programs offered to students are worth the investment to students. The Department of Education will review the incomes of college graduates and high school graduates in the same career field. If the high school graduate median income exceeds the median college graduate income from a particular degree program for 2 out of 3 years, that individual degree program may lose eligibility to offer Federal Direct Loans to students.

Chaminade University does not anticipate that any of our programs are in danger of failing this metric, but will notify all impacted students if a program fails this metric in any given year.