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American Dental Education Association


Volume 3, No. 98, October 9, 2025

Federal Government Shuts Down
 
By midnight on Sept. 30, Congress and the White House had failed to reach an agreement to continue funding Federal government operations beyond the close of fiscal year 2025. Accordingly, the government lacks the authority to spend money, and it therefore has ceased normal operations. Certain functions deemed essential will continue, including most Department of Defense air traffic control and TSA operations.
 
The various departments and agencies each released their own contingency plans. According to the Congressional Budget Office, an estimated 750,000 employees could be furloughed each day of the shutdown.
 
The Department of Education announced that it would furlough 1,485 employees, excluding those at the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA). Of FSA’s 747 employees, 632 have been furloughed, leaving 115 employees to process student aid matters. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2,063 staff, or approximately 15% of its current workforce, will continue working to provide for the safety of human life or the protection of property.
 
As of this writing, it is unclear how long the shutdown will last or what effect it will have on the completion of the FY 2026 appropriation bills. We will provide updates as events occur.

Trump Administration Asks Universities to Sign Its “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education”
 
The Trump administration has sent letters to nine universities urging them to sign a “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education” [ [link removed] ] in exchange for preferential access to federal funding (the link to the compact appears in the Washington Examiner [ [link removed] ] and was also posted by the American Council on Education [ [link removed] ] ). The 10-page agreement attached to the letters, described as part of the President’s push to reshape higher education, lays out a set of requirements that schools would need to adopt.

 
The compact letter was signed by Education Secretary Linda McMahon; Vince Haley, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council; and May Mailman, the White House’s senior adviser for special projects.
 
Because the compact is not posted on the U.S. Department of Education’s website, what is known comes from media reports that may or may not be fully accurate.
According to the New York Times [ [link removed] ] , the agreement contains wide-ranging provisions. Schools would be required to freeze tuition for five years, cap international undergraduate enrollment at 15% and reinstate mandatory entrance exams like the SAT or ACT.
Institutions with large endowments would be compelled to provide free tuition for students majoring in fields like math, biology or other hard sciences if endowments exceed $2 million per undergraduate.
In addition, universities would need to adopt strict “grade integrity” policies and protect “academic freedom” for all viewpoints, with a special emphasis on safeguarding conservative perspectives.
 
The compact calls for eliminating race, sex and ethnicity as admissions factors, enforcing strict gender definitions for sports and restroom facilities and requiring “institutional neutrality” to limit faculty political expression on school-affecting issues. Universities would also have to enforce new standards of civility, prohibiting disruptive protests or demonstrations targeting students.
Inside Higher Education [ [link removed] ] reported that compact compliance would be enforced by, among other things, yearly anonymous polling of students and employees and publication of the results.
 
On Oct. 1, according to the Washington Examiner, the Trump Administration sent the letter and accompanying compact to the following nine institutions: Vanderbilt University, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Austin, University of Arizona, Brown University and University of Virginia.
 
CBS News [ [link removed] ] reports that the letter noted that, “allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal partnerships," as well as invitations to White House events, are some of the preferential treatment universities would access if they signed the compact.
The compact letter also noted that, “Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below [in the compact], if the institution elects to forego federal benefits.”
 
However, political backlash has already surfaced. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) [ [link removed] ] threatened to strip state funding instantly from any California university that agreed to the compact, warning that the state, “will not bankroll schools that sign away academic freedom.”
 
The administration is seeking initial signatories by Nov. 21, 2025. Officials implied this is just the first round of letters that invite institutions to sign the compact.

The U.S. Department of Education Kicks Off Negotiated Rulemaking Required by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
 
The Department of Education began discussions on the negotiated rulemaking [ [link removed] ] last week to implement parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21 [ [link removed] ] ). One of the key issues being discussed by the Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) committee is how to classify graduate versus professional programs for student loan purposes.
Under the new law, professional programs will receive significantly more federal loan funding than graduate programs, making the distinction critical.
Under the new law, the annual loan limit for new graduate students is $20,500, with a lifetime cap, effective July 1, 2026, of $100,000 in federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans for first-time borrowers in their current graduate degree program.
New professional students—like those in dental, medical or law school—will have different limits: $50,000 annually and a $200,000 lifetime cap, inclusive of any prior borrowing in a graduate degree program—for example, Master of Biological Sciences—for first-time borrowers in their current degree program.

 
The department released an initial proposal largely based on existing definitions. Stakeholders are divided. Some are pushing for a broad and inclusive interpretation, while others advocate for a narrow list to control student debt.
 
Several higher education groups want a more flexible definition, allowing institutions to classify their own programs or expand the list of eligible professional degrees to reflect evolving academic fields.
These groups cite programs like social work, education and architecture as deserving inclusion.
Meanwhile, other advocates argue for a strict interpretation to prevent overborrowing, emphasizing that Congress intended to limit the scope of professional programs to those with clear licensure and career outcomes.
Legal experts also differ, with some suggesting that the statutory language already provides clear direction, potentially negating the need for lengthy rulemaking.
 
Consensus among the advisory committee is expected to be hard to reach due to competing interests and the financial implications for institutions and borrowers. If no agreement is reached, the department has the authority to define terms as it sees fit. Observers predict that the administration may lean toward a narrower definition, leaving it to individual programs to lobby for inclusion.
 
With the new loan limits set to take effect July 1, 2026, there's concern that final rules may arrive too late to inform students making decisions for the next academic year.

ADEA Urges Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to Protect Access to Oral Health Care in New H-1B Visa Policy
 
On Sept. 29, ADEA sent a letter [ [link removed] ] to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem expressing deep concern over a recent presidential proclamation [ [link removed] ] imposing a $100,000 fee on all new H-1B visa petitions. The proclamation allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine whether exemptions for health care workers are in the national interest.
 
In the letter, ADEA emphasizes the vital role of dentists in addressing the nation’s oral health workforce needs.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports that more than 62 million Americans live in one of over 7,200 Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), requiring more than 10,500 additional oral health professionals to fill these critical care gaps.
ADEA urged DHS to ensure that dentists are explicitly included in any exemption for health care workers, citing the Social Security Act’s definition of “physician,” which recognizes doctors of dental surgery and doctors of dental medicine.
 
By reinforcing the importance of dental professionals in America’s health care system, ADEA is working to ensure that dental schools can continue recruiting the best faculty and providers, many of whom contribute directly to improving access in underserved communities.

Audit Finds Georgia Medicaid Failed to Implement Changes to Increase Participation in Child Dental Care
 
A follow-up to a 2021 audit found that the Georgia Medicaid system failed to implement some of the recommended changes that were intended to increase childrens’ participation in the state’s Medicaid dental program.
The original audit, conducted by the Georgia Department of Audits & Accounts (DOAA), issued a series of recommendations after discovering participation in the program trailed behind the national average.
In the follow-up, DOAA found that not only had the recommendations either been discontinued or never implemented, but also that participation had decreased further since the original audit.
Between 2020 and 2024, the percentage of Fee-For-Service children receiving dental services fell from 33% to 28%.
 
The following were among the recommendations that were not implemented:
 • A coordinated, data driven approach;
 • Establishing goals for Fee-For-Service utilization among member children;
 • Monitoring dental service utilization among its Fee-For-Service member children and identifying potential causes for declining or insufficient rates;
 • Analyzing the number of providers who accept new patients and actively participate in Medicaid;
 • Tracking the ratio of Fee-For-Service beneficiaries to active providers accepting new patients on a county level to identify areas of the state that lack meaningful access; and
 • Conducting “secret shopper” calls similar to those used for CMO provider network studies to determine whether Fee-For-Service beneficiaries can obtain dental appointments in a reasonable timeframe.

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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
 
Jema Stubblefield
ADEA Senior Manager of State Relations and Advocacy
 
Colin Donnelly, M.P.S
ADEA Legislative Analyst
 
Contact Us:
[email protected] [ mailto:[email protected] ]

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