INSIDE COMPLIANCE

On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed into law The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), or what legislators and the public have deemed as the “Big Beautiful Bill.” OBBBA is a budget reconciliation bill; a bill which utilizes a special process for approval. Instead of the 60 vote supermajority usually required for a bill to pass through the Senate, this process allows for the bill to pass with a simple majority. While the process makes it significantly easier for legislation to pass through Congress, it can only be used for policies that would affect the spending and revenue of the federal government. After months of deliberation, this process allowed OBBBA to pass through the Senate with a 51-50 vote. Days later the bill passed through the House of Representatives, and the following day was signed into law by President Trump. While the president has paraded the spending and revenue bill as “arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed,” some have proposed that its true effects will financially harm Americans and further limit people’s ability to transcend economic classes through higher education.