Earlier this month, President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill, a nearly one-thousand-page budget reconciliation package aimed at funding many of the administration’s priorities iterated on the campaign trail last year.¶
An omnibus bill, the legislation bundles together fiscally significant items from other bills into one package for the purpose of efficiency and to facilitate legislative compromise.¶
Bills of this size and scope are frequently subject to criticism on both sides of the aisle, and traditional media tends to fixate on the most controversial provisions, while ignoring the wins of well-crafted, common-sense policies. ¶
Workforce Pell Grants Provide a Solution to a Decades-Long Problem¶
Good public policy starts with identifying a problem and determining if and how government can provide a remedy. Workforce Pell Grants do both and could be an important piece to a decades-long puzzle in education—how can we ensure postsecondary students are prepared for meaningful and productive workforce participation?¶
Buried deep in the bill, this provision will expand Pell Grant eligibility to students pursuing nondegree credentials. Prior to its passage, Pell Grants could only be used for programs that met 600 clock hours and a fifteen-week duration threshold.
