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American Dental Education Association


Volume 3, No. 88, July 2, 2025

Reconciliation Bill Moves Forward in the Senate
 
In an effort to complete action on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, H.R. 1 [ [link removed] ] (OBBB) by the self-imposed deadline of July 4, the U.S. Senate pulled an all-nighter and weekend session.
 
Changes have been made to the 940-page OBBB text since June 27 to comply with Senate rules that will allow the bill to be considered under expedited procedures that avoid a Senate filibuster, thus requiring only a majority vote.
Note that the information provided in this article is based on the text ADEA obtained as of Saturday morning, June 28, and the explanation provided by the authors.
It is possible that additional changes could occur in order to further comply with those requirements before the bill’s final passage in the Senate.

Higher Education
In higher education, the bill would, after July 1, 2026, eliminate Grad PLUS loans.
In earlier versions of this provision, students with Grad PLUS loans as of that date would remain eligible for up to three years to complete their course of study.
That phrasing is not included in the June 28 summary, so it is unclear if the language remains.
The bill also caps unsubsidized borrowing at $20,500 per year ($100,000 lifetime) and professional (e.g., dental, law, medicine) borrowing at $50,000 per year ($200,000 lifetime); graduate limits are in addition to undergraduate limits.
 
For loan repayment, starting July 1, loans can be repaid using only two plans—a new standard plan and a new income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. Existing plans, such as the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), graduated, extended, alternative, are eliminated. In the bill:
 • Under the new standard plan, borrowers make fixed payments for 10-25 years based on the amount borrowed.
 • A new IDR plan, the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), is established whereby payments are 1% to 10% of income depending on income level, with a minimum monthly payment of $10. Payments are reduced by $50 per dependent. Borrowers who make on-time payments always see their balance go down, as unpaid interest is waived and there is a principal match of up to $50; any remaining balance is forgiven after 30 years.

Medicaid
For Medicaid, the status is a little murkier in the bill.
Provisions we understood to have been dropped because they violated the rules for expedited consideration in the Senate had remained in the Saturday version.
These provisions could be removed during debate on the bill itself if a point of order is raised against them.
One additional provision that has been added would create a Rural Health Transformation Program to provide $25 billion over five years, beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2028, to mitigate the effect of cuts to the Medicaid program on hospitals, rural health clinics, federally qualified health clinics, community health clinics and drug treatment and behavioral and mental health clinics.
However, the underlying effect of Medicaid program reductions reported on previously in the ADEA Advocate [ [link removed] ] remain. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that these changes to the program would cause 11.8 million people to lose their health insurance coverage.
 
Outlook
The Senate began 20 hours of debate at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 29, with at least 86 amendments filed to be considered. On July 1, the Senate passed the OBBB Act by a 51–50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.
 
The Congressional majority hopes to have the House of Representatives vote on the Senate-passed version on July 2. If it passes the House without change, that will clear the OBBB Act for the president, who intends to sign it before July 4.

Scheduling of In-person Interviews for International Students Resumes
 
On June 18, the U.S. Department of State issued an update on its pause in scheduling in-person interviews for international students seeking F, M or J visas. In short, based on a leaked cable [ [link removed] ] from Secretary Marco Rubio, the Department has begun scheduling such interviews, and it is implementing an additional vetting of such students’ social media history after the interviews and before granting visas. There is no indication about how long this process might take.
 
According to the Cable Counselor, officers are looking for “potentially derogatory information and indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States; advocacy for, aid, or support for designated foreign terrorists and other threats to U.S. national security; or of support for unlawful antisemitic harassment or violence.”
 
Some additional information on the situation from NAFSA, the association for international educators, can be found here. [ [link removed] ] This remains an evolving matter, and ADEA will continue to update you on the situation.

Accreditation Bills Reported by House Committee
 
The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and Workforce did a markup of two bills, last week in partial response to President Trump’s April 23 Executive Order, “Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education.”
 
Introduced on June 25 by U.S. Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), H.R. 4054, the Accreditation Choice and Innovation Act [ [link removed] ] , creates a “new marketplace for accreditation by giving states the flexibility to designate industry-specific accreditors, providing an on-ramp for capable new accreditors, and directing accreditors to focus on student outcomes to guide accreditors’ quality assurance reviews.”
 
H.R. 2516, the Accreditation for College Excellence (ACE) Act of 2025, [ [link removed] ] which was introduced by the Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Chair U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT), “prohibits accreditors from mandating that institutions adopt DEI standards in order to receive accreditation.” The legislation is intended to codify the Executive Order by prohibiting political litmus tests during the college accreditation process to retain access to federal funding.
 
The next step is full House consideration of the legislation, the timing of which is unclear.

Federal Judge Orders ED to Rehire Civil Rights Staff
 
A federal judge in Massachusetts has ruled [ [link removed] ] that the Department of Education (ED) must reinstate the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) employees who were laid off following a major reduction in its labor force.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun’s ruling comes after the Department closed seven of its 12 regional OCR offices—a move that eliminated approximately 208 investigator positions, representing approximately 55% of OCR’s investigative staff.
The court ruling mandates that ED restore OCR to its staffing and operational status as of Jan.
20, 2025.
 
Joun found that these layoffs severely limited OCR’s ability to fulfill its core mission of enforcing federal civil rights laws in schools nationwide. The closures and staff reductions left OCR unable to conduct timely and thorough investigations into complaints of discrimination based on race, sex, disability and other protected classes.
 
In his ruling, Joun found that the cuts left OCR “incapable of addressing the vast majority of OCR complaints” and had already led to “a substantial backlog of unresolved cases.” He noted that the layoffs caused widespread disruption:
 • Investigations were halted.
 • Communication with complainants was limited.
 • Critical enforcement mechanisms—including document requests, interviews and resolution agreements—were effectively frozen.

In a related May 22 ruling [ [link removed] ] , Joun issued a separate injunction blocking broader ED layoffs affecting nearly 1,400 employees across multiple divisions.

Texas Wraps Up Biennial Session; Governor Signs Multiple Bills That Will Impact Oral Health Providers
 
The Texas Legislature has ended its biennial session. Before heading home, they sent multiple bills to Gov. Greg Abbot (R) that will have an impact on oral health providers in the state. The bills that became law included:
 • HB 541 [ [link removed] ] – It creates a framework for direct patient care agreements.
[ [link removed] ] Under the bill, a health care practitioner and a patient can enter a written, direct patient care agreement under which a health care practitioner agrees to provide health care services to a patient in exchange for a direct fee for a period of time that is entered into by the practitioner.
 • HB 1052 [ [link removed] ] – It requires a health benefit plan to provide coverage to Texas residents for covered teledentistry or telehealth services that have an originating site or distant site located outside the state on the same basis and to the same extent that the plan provides coverage for the service delivered as a teledentistry or telehealth service with an originating site and distant site located in this state, provided that the health professional who provides the service is licensed or otherwise authorized to provide the service in Texas and has a physical office in the state.
 • HB 1700 [ [link removed] ] – It requires each agency with regulatory authority over a health professional providing a telemedicine, teledentistry or telehealth services to adopt rules necessary to standardize formats for and retention of records related to a patient’s consent to treatment, data collection and data sharing.
Rules adopted by agencies must address the specific consent documentation required for telemedicine, teledentistry or telehealth services, and include provisions—based on the appropriate standard of care—for consent documentation in an audio-only format.
 • HB 3800 [ [link removed] ] – It requires the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) to establish an advisory board to develop a resource guide that facilitates collaborations among health care providers and institutions of higher education in more effectively identifying and addressing local health care workforce needs, including training, workforce shortages and challenging workloads.
 • HB 4070 [ [link removed] ] – It prohibits a person from selling an orthodontic device to a patient in the state or providing a service related to the design or manufacture of an orthodontic device, unless the person is a dentist who has conducted an in-person examination and provided other specified services.
The bill also allows the sale of orthodontic devices by a person who receives written or electronic confirmation from a dentist who has provided the services specified in the bill.
 • SB 527 [ [link removed] ] – It mandates health benefit plans that provide coverage for general anesthesia to provide coverage for medically necessary general anesthesia services in connection with dental services for patients who are under 13 years of age and unable to undergo the necessary procedure due to a documented physical, mental or medical reason.
The bill also requires the anesthesia to be performed by a qualified provider of anesthesia services.

Connecticut Sends Bill to Governor that Would Create a New Student Loan Reimbursement Program for Health Care Providers
 
The Connecticut General Assembly has sent a bill [ [link removed] ] to Gov. Ned Lamont (D) that, if signed, would create a new student loan reimbursement program for health care providers.
Under the bill, the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH) would be required to create a program giving loan reimbursement grants to health care providers who are employed full-time in the state. At least 20% of grants would be required to go to full-time primary care providers and another 20% of grants would be required to go to providers employed full-time in rural communities or at federally qualified health centers.
Primary care under the program would include family medicine, general pediatrics, primary care, internal medicine and primary care obstetrics or gynecology, regardless of board certification.
 
The DPH Commissioner is required to set the award amounts and establish the program’s eligibility requirements and application process. The Commissioner must consider workforce shortage areas when developing the eligibility requirements.

ADEA Advocacy in Action
This appears weekly in the ADEA Advocate to summarize and provide direct links to recent advocacy actions taken by ADEA. Please let us know what you think and how we might improve its usefulness.
 
Issues and Resources
 • ADEA report [ [link removed] ] on teledentistry
 • ADEA report [ [link removed] ] on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on U.S. Dental Schools
 • ADEA policy brief [ [link removed] ] regarding overprescription of antibiotics
 • For a full list of ADEA memos, briefs and letters click here [ [link removed] ] .

Key Federal Issues [ [link removed] ]

ADEA U.S. Interactive Legislative and Regulatory Tracking Map [ [link removed] ]

Key State Issues [ [link removed] ]

The ADEA Advocate [ [link removed] ] is published weekly. Its purpose is to keep ADEA members abreast of federal and state issues and events of interest to the academic dentistry and the dental and research communities.
 
©2025
American Dental Education Association
655 K Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20001
Tel: 202-289-7201
Website: www.adea.org [ [link removed] ]

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B. Timothy Leeth, CPA
ADEA Chief Advocacy Officer
 
Bridgette DeHart, J.D.
ADEA Director of Federal Relations and Advocacy
 
Phillip Mauller, M.P.S.
ADEA Senior Director of State Relations and Advocacy
 
Contact Us:
[email protected] [ mailto:[email protected] ]

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