The "big, beautiful bill" is now back in the House, which will reconvene to take up the Senate-passed version Wednesday morning.

The Senate on Tuesday passed its version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and budget bill by a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie. The 940-page bill, which now returns to the House for final approval, contains a number of provisions related to higher education that seem likely to weaken nonprofit colleges’ finances, while making it more difficult for students to access financial aid and student loans. Although some House Republicans are complaining about Senate changes from the bill they passed back in May, the betting is that under pressure from Trump, they’ll accept the Senate’s version.

“With the goalpost of July 4th set by the President, it’s likely the Senate’s version will hold mostly intact,” says Michael Itzkowitz, founder of the higher education consultancy HEA Group and a former official in the Obama education department. “There’s just not too much time for the House to make any large changes at this point.” If House passage of the bill is delayed, it won’t be education-related provisions that hold it up, says Jon Fansmith, senior vice president for government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education. The Senate bill’s deeper cuts to Medicaid and bigger increase in deficit spending may worry House Republicans, he says. “They may not be able to get this over the finish line tomorrow. And then if that doesn’t happen, I think everything goes back on the table,” says Fansmith. “But their goal is to try and move quickly.”

The proposals in the bill that impact college budgets fall into three big categories: endowment taxes, changes to Pell grants and regulatory repeals. It also contains a litany of changes to federal student loans, which would phase out popular income-driven repayment plans, limit borrowing by graduate students and parents, and eliminate economic hardship and unemployment deferment options, among other things. Forbes contributor Adam Minsky explains all of these changes in detail here. Read on for a breakdown of what else the bill has in store for higher ed.

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