S 1948119th CongressIn Committee

POST GRAD Act

Introduced: Jun 4, 2025

EducationFinancial Services

Standard Summary

Comprehensive overview in 1-2 paragraphs

The POST GRAD Act (S. 1948) would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to address the authority to issue Federal Direct Stafford Loans to graduate and professional students. The bill changes the statutory language to designate the current termination as a “Temporary Termination” and extends the end date of that termination to June 30, 2023. In effect, this maintains a pause on the Department of Education’s authority to make Direct Stafford Loans to graduate and professional students for an extended period, with the potential reauthorization to resume after the termination ends. The bill also explicitly exempts these amendments from certain HEA rulemaking requirements, signaling a faster, less formal regulatory process for these changes. The bill is named the “Protecting Our Students by Terminating Graduate Rates that Add to Debt Act” (POST GRAD Act) and is introduced in the Senate with a cross‑party group of sponsors.

Key Points

1Recasts the law’s heading for the graduate Direct Stafford loan program as a “Temporary Termination” and extends the termination end date to June 30, 2023.
2Amends Section 455(a)(3) of the Higher Education Act to insert the specified end date after the 2012 reference, effectively prolonging the period during which the Secretary would not issue Federal Direct Stafford Loans to graduate and professional students under this program.
3The amendments would not be subject to the rulemaking requirements in sections 482(c) and 492 of the HEA, meaning these changes would bypass some typical regulatory notice-and-comment or other procedural steps.
4The bill’s objective, as stated in the title, is to “reinstate” the authority to make Federal Direct Stafford Loans to graduate and professional students, but the enacted text describes extending a temporary termination rather than immediate reauthorization.
5The short title of the bill is the POST GRAD Act, standing for the Protecting Our Students by Terminating Graduate Rates that Add to Debt Act.

Impact Areas

Primary group/area affected- Graduate and professional students who would have access to Federal Direct Stafford Loans if the termination ends; under the bill’s current extended termination, their access remains paused until the end date or beyond unless further action is taken.Secondary group/area affected- Institutions of higher education and the broader federal student loan portfolio, which would experience changes in the availability of Direct Stafford Loan financing to graduate students during the extended termination period.Additional impacts- Borrowing costs and options for graduate students (potential shift toward other loan products such as Grad PLUS or private loans if Direct Stafford Loans are not available).- Regulatory process considerations, since the bill seeks to exempt these amendments from certain HEA rulemaking requirements, potentially impacting transparency and stakeholder input.- Policy signaling about federal financing for graduate education and debt levels, framed by the bill’s title as aiming to terminate “graduate rates that add to debt.”Sponsored in the Senate by a group including Padilla, Booker, Duckworth, Kim, Van Hollen, and Wyden; status shows as Introduced and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.The terminology in the bill suggests a temporary suspension rather than an immediate reauthorization of graduate Direct Stafford Loans, with the explicit end date of June 30, 2023. The practical effect would depend on subsequent action once the termination period ends.

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