Summer 2025

Welcome to AAVMC Advocacy Insights, formerly known as The Advocate. This is still the newsletter you subscribed to and the content you enjoyed previously is still available. We’ve given our newsletter a new name to reflect our evolving content better.

On July 4, President Trump signed Public Law 119-21, also known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill." This legislation largely encapsulates the president’s agenda and includes many provisions that impact higher education. The most controversial of these are lifetime caps on federal student loans. In the initial legislation from the House of Representatives, graduate and professional loans were capped at $150,000. The final bill caps them at $200,000. It also eliminates Grad Plus loans, which allowed borrowers to take loans up to the full cost of attendance.

A summary of the key provisions can be found here. A separate summary focused explicitly on the student loan provisions can be accessed here.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he expects a second reconciliation package to be introduced and passed in the fall, once Congress returns from the August recess. It is unclear, at this point, what that package will contain.

White House Issues New Executive Actions

On August 7, President Trump signed two executive actions that will directly impact higher education and research funding at AAVMC member institutions.

An executive order (EO), “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking,” directs agency heads to “designate a senior appointee who shall be responsible for creating a process to review new funding opportunity announcements and to review discretionary grants to ensure that they are consistent with agency priorities and the national interest.” The EO also directs senior appointees to ensure that discretionary awards advance the president’s policy priorities, provide preference for discretionary awards to be given to institutions with lower indirect cost rates, direct grants to be given to a “broad range of recipients rather than to a select group of repeat players,” and prioritize an institution’s committing to reproducibility over reputation or perceived prestige, among other directives.

The second, an executive memorandum, is explained in a factsheet issued by the White House. In the memorandum, the president orders the U.S. Department of Education to require expanded admissions data submissions from any university that receives federal funds. The White House believes this data will enable the department and the administration to root out any universities that may still use race in any capacity as part of the admissions process.

Department of Education Halts Certain Payment Plans

On July 9, the U.S. Department of Education sent a notice to student loan borrowers regarding their income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. The notice stated that students who had chosen the SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) plan would not be eligible for loan forgiveness. The SAVE plan was created under the Biden administration, and a federal court has issued an injunction preventing the department from implementing the plan. Read more

While reconciliation and the One Big Beautiful Bill dominated the first six months of the year, Congress is running short on time to complete appropriations for the next fiscal year (FY). The current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires September 30, when Congress must either complete the appropriations bills or pass another CR.

The House and Senate have begun committee work on the bills, although the process is moving slowly. The House Agriculture Appropriations Committee passed its FY 2026 bill, which contained good news for some of our key programs, including the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program, which was increased to $11 million (a 10 percent increase), and the Veterinary Services Grant Program, which increased to $4.5 million (a 12.5 percent increase). While this process has a long way to go, this is a good start. Read more

The U.S. Department of State ended its hold on international student visa applications on June 18. However, the department announced an

“enhanced vetting” process, which could lead to long processing times and delays in issuance of visas. Part of the new vetting includes screening applicants’ social media accounts and online presence for “signs of hostility toward U.S., support for terrorism, or other threats to national security.” Read more

Advocacy Letters



AAVMC continues to work closely with organizations interested in advancing academic veterinary medicine, food security, and public health. The letters below reflect some of that recent activity.

• Community letter on higher education provisions in the Senate Reconciliation bill
• Health care community letter on higher education provisions in the Senate Reconciliation bill
• Community letter supporting biomedical research funding at NIH
• Community letter in support of full funding for NIH
• Letter to State Department Regarding Student Interview Pause

AAVMC Governmental Affairs



Contact Kevin Cain, AAVMC Senior Director for Governmental Affairs, with any comments, questions, or suggestions about our program.

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AAVMC strives to create a culture of diversity and inclusion in every dimension of academic veterinary medicine. To foster this goal, the photographs and illustrations in our communications programs are aspirational, and do not necessarily reflect the levels of diversity and inclusion that currently exist.