Day: September 29, 2025

• Trump’s Education Department is beginning negotiations on its student-loan repayment proposals.
• They include replacing existing income-driven repayment plans with two options.
• New caps on borrowing for graduate and professional programs are also on the table.

The process to overhaul student-loan repayment is officially underway.

On Monday, President Donald Trump’s Department of Education is beginning negotiations with stakeholders on the president’s plans to change student-loan repayment options and place new caps on borrowing.

The changes stem from Trump’s “big beautiful” spending law. They’re required to undergo the negotiated rulemaking process — which includes stakeholder feedback and periods of public comment — before moving forward with final implementation. It’s typically a lengthy process, and the administration will have to move quickly to meet its previously defined goal of July 2026 as the deadline to implement many of the changes.

A draft version of the negotiations agenda said that the topics will center on new loan limits, income-driven repayment plans, and changes to deferment and forbearance periods.

Here’s how the Department of Education plans to roll out its student-loan repayment changes.

New student-loan repayment plans

A key topic at the negotiation sessions is Trump’s plan to eliminate existing income-driven repayment plans and replace them with two new plans to be implemented next summer.

The first plan is a standard repayment. According to the department’s proposed text, this plan would set a borrower’s monthly payment based on the amount of their direct federal loans and the interest rates. The second plan is a new Repayment Assistance Plan, which sets borrowers’ monthly payments at 1% to 10% of their discretionary income, based on their income levels, with a $10 minimum payment. The plan waives unpaid interest and allows for forgiveness of remaining balances after 30 years.

The department plans to implement these plans by July 1, 2026. Its draft proposal said that borrowers who took out loans before that date will retain access to standard repayment and income-based repayment plans, while borrowers who take out loans after that date can enroll in the Repayment Assistance Plan.

New caps on borrowing

The department is proposing to eliminate the Grad PLUS loan program on or after July 1, 2026. This program allows graduate and professional students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance for their programs. The changes would result in a cap on borrowing for graduate students at $20,500 a year and $100,000 over a lifetime, and for professional students at $50,000 a year and $200,000 over a lifetime.

The department’s draft proposal also suggests refining definitions for graduate and professional students. It said that a professional degree is one that shows “a level of professional skill beyond that normally required for a bachelor’s degree.” It cites pharmacy, dentistry, and veterinary medicine as examples of degrees that would meet the qualifications.

While the list of examples is not exhaustive, degrees not focused on medicine, like an education doctorate, were not referenced, suggesting that some professional degrees might not benefit from higher student-loan borrowing caps.

Business Insider previously reported that many professional programs, like law or medical school, cost more than $200,000. With the new federal loan limits, some students might choose not to enroll or enter the private student-loan market.

Changes to deferment and forbearance periods

The department is proposing to sunset deferments for economic hardships and periods of unemployment for direct federal loans disbursed after July 1, 2027.

It also wants to expand options for borrowers in default. Defaulted borrowers seeking to return to good standing can enter loan rehabilitation, in which they agree with their loan holder to make nine consecutive payments within 20 days of the due date over a period of 10 consecutive months. Once the loan is rehabilitated, the defaulted loan will be removed from the borrower’s credit report.

Trump is seeking to allow borrowers to rehabilitate their loans twice, instead of once, beginning on or after July 1, 2027.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee is “a great start.”
• But the new fee “probably sets the bar a little too high,” he added.
• Huang said the US must remain mindful of how such policies affect global talent flows.

Jensen Huang said President Donald Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee could put the American dream further out of reach for immigrants.

The Nvidia CEO said on an episode of the “BG2 Pod” published Friday that the Trump administration’s move to change America’s H-1B visa program is “a great start,” but added that the $100,000 fee “probably sets the bar a little too high.”

The policy “at least eliminates illegal immigration” and abuse of the visa system, but the steep cost might mean more investment outside the US, Huang said.

He agreed with tech investor and podcaster Brad Gerstner that the fee also tilts the playing field toward Big Tech firms that can more easily afford to sponsor visas, leaving startups at a disadvantage.

Huang said the US must remain mindful of how such policies affect global talent flows, saying they could make “foreign students uncomfortable.”

He pointed to Chinese researchers as one example, separating the ideas of the US competing with China as a country from American policies that affect Chinese people.

“We need to make sure that that slippery slope isn’t crossed,” he added.

Talent inflow is an early indicator of the country’s future success. “Smart people’s desire to come to America and smart students’ desire to stay, those are what I would call KPIs,” Huang said, referring to key performance indicators.

The Taiwan-born CEO has often described his own journey as a product of the American dream. America’s immigration system is in a “difficult situation,” and Trump has limited time to improve it, Huang said. Any move that addresses the country’s ability to attract and keep top talent is a step in the right direction, the CEO said.

The H-1B visa change is a good start — but it shouldn’t be the end, he added.

Nvidia is one of the largest tech employers of H-1B visa holders in the United States. At the end of fiscal year 2025, the company had 1,519 H-1B filings and 36,000 employees worldwide, a Business Insider analysis found in March.

An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment.

Reactions to new H-1B $100K fee

Business leaders have been weighing in on President Donald Trump’s new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas. The White House told Business Insider earlier this month that the fee would only apply to new applicants, not those renewing their H-1B visas.

The US issues roughly 85,000 new H-1B visas via a lottery system every year. The H-1B program is highly popular among US companies looking to hire foreign workers for in-demand roles such as tech and engineering

Huang said in a joint interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last week that he was “glad to see President Trump making the moves he’s making.”

“We want all the brightest minds to come to the US, and remember immigration is the foundation of the American dream. And we represent the American dream,” Huang said during an interview with CNBC. “Immigration is really important to our company and is really important to our nation’s future.”

Altman said the Trump administration’s introduction of the fee was the right move.

“We need to get the smartest people in the country, and streamlining that process and also sort of aligning financial incentives seems good to me,” Altman told CNBC during the joint interview.