Native-Focused Student Services
and Degree Programs

The Big Beautiful Bill Is Headed to the House of Representatives for a final vote. Call your representatives and make your voice heard NOW to stop it! The bill will negatively impact Native students and higher education institutions by:

• • Changing federal student loan programs and financial aid including student loan repayment plans and ending some income-contingent plans like the SAVE plan, capping Parent PLUS loans and eliminating the Graduate PLUS loan program for new borrowers
  • Altering Pell Grant eligibility and possibly reducing funding for certain students.

It will also harm rural and Native communities by:

• • Eliminating health insurance for 17 million Americans;
  • Increasing the cost of health care;
  • Closing hospitals in rural communities, reducing jobs and also access to health care;
  • Reducing and eliminating food assistance for millions of vulnerable children, veterans, and other Americans;
  • Eliminating millions of jobs;
  • And exploding the national debt—all while increasing the tax bills of the nation’s average citizens.

If you haven’t joined us yet (and even if you have) now is THE time to make your voices heard for your communities. Tell your Representative NO—this Bill is harmful for Native communities, rural communities, and average Americans.

How you can help: Please contact your elected Representatives today and ask them to say “No” to the Big, Beautiful Bill.

Script:
Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from [CITY, ZIP]. I’m calling to ask that [YOUR REPRESENTATIVE’S NAME] oppose passing the One Big, Beautiful Bill. This bill’s Pell Grant and student loan policies will create unnecessary barriers to achieving a higher education for low to middle-income students, especially American Indian and Alaska Natives.

URGENT! Last Chance! Help Stop the Big Beautiful Bill!

Limiting students’ access to funds for education will also lead to an economic fallout in terms of their ability to participate in the workforce and spend their earnings in the market, while also creating a shortage of skilled, qualified, and very needed workers in their communities and a dearth of other important and needed programs and services in rural and Native communities.

This weekend’s news cycle was filled with stories about the legislative marathon lawmakers are embarking upon to vote on the Trump Administration’s budget reconciliation bill. While the President is hoping to make a grand statement by having the bill pass by July 4, in time for Independence Day, the bill is nothing for the average American to celebrate. Though we could easily point out the real and present peril millions of Americans would face when their healthcare options disappear, as the American Indian College Fund—an organization that knows education is the answer to our nation’s pressing issues—we know how this bill harms students, their families, and communities.

The Senate version of the bill drafted in early June included provisions to strengthen the Pell Grant program, but a final version of the bill and the status of Pell has not been agreed upon. Per Inside Higher Ed, as of June 27, a Senate official struck down the plan to expand Pell Grants to students in short-term workforce programs. Current and future student loan borrowers also face a dramatic overhaul to both the amount of unsubsidized loans that can be taken out and the terms of repayment. The proposed changes would only benefit private lenders and banks who would try to take further advantage of people who are studying to build a better life for themselves and their communities.

And just as students from low and middle-income households would be the ones most detrimentally affected by this bill, tribal colleges, community colleges and rural communities they serve would suffer more than larger institutions of higher education in urban areas. When enrollments tank and schools shutter their doors, the local workforce and economy will soon follow. Thousands of communities around the nation would be left without the education or opportunity for growth and change that could make things better for all.

How can you help? As Congress runs their marathon to the vote, our allies can run our own marathon. We need you to help win our race by making consistent phone calls, writing emails, and commenting on lawmakers’ social media posts in the House and Senate alike to ask them to vote “No” to a bill that can only be described as a wrecking ball.

How you can help: Please contact your elected Representatives and Senators today and ask them to say “No” to the Big, Beautiful Bill.

Script:
Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from [CITY, ZIP]. I’m calling to ask that [YOUR REPRESENTATIVE’S/SENATOR’S NAME] oppose passing the One Big, Beautiful Bill. This bill does not include support for the expansion of Pell Grants to students in short-term workforce programs and would harm current and future student loan borrowers. Both policies will create unnecessary barriers to achieving a higher education for low-income students, especially American Indian and Alaska Natives.

More than 75% of American Indian and Alaska Native students rely on Pell Grants to access a higher education and would not have the opportunity to do so without them. Low and middle-income students are also those most affected if unsubsidized loan and income-based repayment options are removed. Limiting students’ access to funds for their education will also lead to an economic fallout in terms of their ability to participate in the workforce and spend their earnings in the market.

Pell Grants pay for themselves in just 10 years through the higher income taxes paid by more educated workers providing our nation—and Native and rural communities—with the services we need. In the same vein, student loan borrowers, especially those repaying under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program are filling critical roles in society for less than they could earn in the private sector with the understanding that their education is meant to help communities. By reducing Pell Grants, loan limits, and repayment options, we are sacrificing the dreams of our children, our communities’ and nation’s future economic growth, a strong tax base, and the opportunity for more Americans to earn a family-sustaining income. Educating the next generation of all Americans is critical to our nation’s future.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

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