For Immediate Release: April 3, 2025
Contact: press@borrowersaction.org
Amidst Ongoing Attacks on Department of Education, Congressional Republicans
Set on Passing Budget to Deliver Tax Cuts to Billionaires While Slashing Support for Public Education, Students, and Working Families ​
Miller-Meeks Voted to Pass MAGA Budget Cutting Billions from Education Programs that Iowans Rely on to
Help Cover Rising Costs of College
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, Congressional Republicans met to discuss their next steps to pass their MAGA budget plans that would cut billions to education programs to pay for trillions in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. In February, Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) joined her Republican colleagues to pass a MAGA budget calling for at least $350 billion in cuts to education programs in order to pay for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. The House is expected to move an updated budget proposal as early as next week, which will call for similarly steep cuts.
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Rep. Miller-Meeks is looking to make steep cuts to the Pell Grant program, which helped over 10,000 students in Iowa's 1st District pay for college last year. In addition to making college even more expensive for working families, Rep. Miller-Meeks wants to eliminate affordable repayment options for Americans with student debt, which could force monthly student loan bills to skyrocket for 125,000 of her constituents with student debt.
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“Students, borrowers, and working families in Eastern Iowa deserve policymakers who will keep their promises to lower everyday costs,” said Aissa Canchola Bañez, Political Director for Protect Borrowers Action. “Instead, Rep. Miller-Meeks is pushing massive tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations paid for on the backs of working families in her district. Not only would these cuts push hundreds of thousands of Iowans further into debt, they are incredibly unpopular. It’s time for Rep. Miller-Meeks to work on behalf of her constituents, not her ultra wealthy donors.”
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Polling conducted in February shows that voters across party lines, age groups, gender, race, and educational status strongly oppose efforts to pay for tax cuts for the ultra wealthy on the backs of students and working families with student debt. According to the poll, voters oppose decreasing Pell Grant awards by a more than 3-to-1 margin. The same poll also found that 60% of voters—including a majority of Republicans—oppose eliminating income-driven repayment options that allow borrowers to tie their monthly payment to their income.
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About Protect Borrowers Action
Protect Borrowers Action educates, activates, and mobilizes Americans with student debt to hold right-wing officials accountable for their efforts to deny borrowers life-changing relief and keep them drowning in student debt. PBA is a fiscally sponsored project of Fund for a Better Future, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. Learn more at borrowersaction.org.