The Trump administration’s ongoing work overhauling the federal student loan system reached a major milestone last month, when the Education Department published a proposed rule implementing key features of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The regulation’s impact analysis highlights key benefits of the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), a new loan repayment plan that will help student borrowers pay down their debts quickly and affordably—without mass federal loan forgiveness.
Currently, the federal government offers an array of income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, which tie student borrowers’ loan payments to their earnings and forgive remaining balances after a set period of time. The problem with these plans, as I’ve