Washington Update

Fiscal Year 2026 Appropriations Update 
On November 12, President Trump signed an appropriations package that provides year-long funding for agencies under the Agriculture, Military Construction-VA, and Legislative Branch appropriations bills and funds remaining agencies at FY25 levels through January 30. The package also reverses White House-directed layoffs made during the shutdown.  
 
The bill passed the House 222-209, with two Republicans voting no and six Democrats voting yes. In the Senate, the bill reached 60 votes with eight Democrats joining all Republicans in voting yes.  
 
The package included a Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Additionally, it included an extension for those Farm Bill programs not already funded in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act through September 30, 2026.  

Highlights from the FY26 agriculture appropriations bill impacting programs at the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) include:  

• Per the explanatory statement accompanying the bill, NIFA receives $1.677 billion, a small decrease of $1.74 million below the FY25 enacted level, rebuking the dramatic decreases proposed in the President’s Budget Request. 
• The land-grant capacity programs are kept flat except for programs for 1994 institutions, which receive a slight increase of $1 million each for their payments and Extension programs and $500,000 for the 1994 research program. 
• The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative is reduced by $10 million, bringing its new total to $435 million. 

What’s Next: Congress now turns its attention to funding the remaining nine appropriations bills. The Senate could take up a package containing the Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Interior-Environment, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, and Transportation-HUD bills as early as this week. For the latest funding levels for APLU priority accounts, please see the association’s budget and appropriations chart. 

Current State of Play: One Big Beautiful Bill Act Negotiated Rulemaking 
On November 6, the U.S. Department of Education’s RISE Negotiated Rulemaking Committee reached consensus on a package of proposed regulations for the student loan limits, graduate and professional program definitions, loan proration, repayment, and loan rehabilitation provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. As a result, ED is required to publish the agreed upon text in its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which it may do as soon as this month.  
 
Go Deeper: The consensus package includes a narrow definition of professional programs that includes the ten degrees found in current regulation plus the addition of certain doctoral degrees in psychology, among other provisions. As additional background, APLU’s Office of Governmental Affairs produced a more detailed summary of the proposed rule that is available to members for review.  

Additional Background: ED convened two committees to develop regulations for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: the Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) committee and the Education and Access through Demand-driven Workforce Pell (AHEAD) committee. The RISE Committee covered student loan limits, graduate and professional program definitions, repayment, and loan rehabilitation, among other provisions, and concluded its work earlier this month. The AHEAD Committee covers the accountability and Pell Grant provisions of the law and convenes in early December and January.   

U.S. Department of Education Announces Plan to Shift Programs to Other Agencies 
In an announcement yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) transferred responsibilities for administration of a number of grant programs to four other federal agencies. Per ED, the reorganization will “streamline federal education activities on the legally required programs, reduce administrative burdens, and refocus programs and activities to better serve students.”  
 
Under the interagency agreements, the U.S. Department of Labor will administer most grant programs previously under the Office of Postsecondary Education. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will administer the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. Additionally, the U.S. Department of State will administer the International Education and Foreign Language Studies program, which includes Title VI international education programs and Fulbright-Hays.  

The exact impacts of the programs’ relocation remains to be seen. 

U.S. Department of Education Announces New FIPSE Priorities, Grant Competition 
Last week, ED issued a notice in the Federal Register inviting applications for the FY26 Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) programs. In the notice, ED announced changes to longstanding FIPSE priorities, with preference given to programs focusing on the following areas:  

• Artificial intelligence;
• Programs promoting civil discourse on college campuses;
• Programs promoting accreditation reform;
• Programs supporting capacity-building for short-term programs.  

Why it Matters: The notice purposes all FIPSE funds towards these four priorities, eliminating several longstanding programs within the account, including the Postsecondary Student Success Program, among others. Additionally, the notice caps the indirect cost rate for grants at eight percent. ED has typically capped indirect costs on training grants at that level, but this appears to be the first time the cap applies to FIPSE. Grant applications are due December 3, and ED hopes to disburse funding by December 31.   

APLU Joins Coalition Letter on DOE Office of Science FY27 Funding 
On November 4, APLU joined the Energy Sciences Coalition on a letter to the White House Office of Budget and Management (OMB), Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) leadership on the coalition’s FY27 funding priorities.  

The letter requests no less than $9.5 billion for the DOE Office of Science, which is the same as the community’s FY26 request. The letter highlights how DOE’s basic research aligns all five of the Trump administration’s FY27 research and development budgetary priorities and all five of the high-priority crosscutting actions outlined in the September 2025 memo to federal agencies.