2025 Year in Review: The 10 Most Downloaded “Off The Cuff” Episodes
NASFAA's weekly policy podcast, "Off The Cuff," reached tens of thousands of listeners in 2025, keeping members up to date on all things related to financial aid and higher education amid a busy year full of changes and challenges. Check out the top 10 most downloaded episodes and relisten to your favorites from the past year.
OTC Inside The Beltway: Working Through the Trump Administration's Latest Effort to Dismantle Education Department
February 6, 2025 - Allie and Karen are joined by Megan and Nalia to discuss the latest news reports that President Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order that would seek to dismantle the Department of Education. Karen and Megan debrief listeners on what NASFAA knows so far and walk through the complex roadmap that would be required to actually terminate ED.
OTC Inside the Beltway: Mass Layoffs at ED, Chances of a Shutdown, and the PSLF Executive Order
March 14, 2025 - Beth is joined by Karen, Allie, and Hugh to dig into the Department of Education’s (ED) plan to lay off nearly 50% of its workforce and the potential impacts on student financial aid programs. The team discusses many questions raised by the action and what we’ve learned since Tuesday’s announcement.
OTC Inside The Beltway: Unpacking the Senate's Reconciliation Bill
June 13, 2025 - Melanie is joined by Megan, Sarah, and Nalia to discuss the latest updates around the reconciliation process after the Senate HELP Committee released its own portion of the bill this week that could make significant changes to higher education policy. Nalia begins by explaining how the reconciliation process works and what’s ahead for Congress.
OTC Inside The Beltway: Unpacking ED's DEI Dear Colleague Letter, SAVE Plan Updates, and Batch Corrections Functionality
February 28, 2025 - Beth and Karen are joined by Megan and Jill to discuss multiple updates from the Department of Education (ED). Karen kicks off the episode by debriefing listeners on ED's Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) that directed institutions to cease using race preferences as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring, training, and other institutional programming, or be at risk of losing federal funding.
OTC Inside the Beltway: SCOTUS Weighs in on ED’s RIF, Reconciliation Becomes Law and PSLF Goes to NegReg
July 18, 2025 - Hugh is joined by Karen, Megan and Sarah to catch listeners up on some of the biggest news impacting student financial aid policy. Hugh kicks things off with a quick update on the Department of Education’s (ED) reduction in force (RIF) and how a recent order from the U.S. Supreme Court could impact the department’s staffing levels, while Megan and Karen explain some concerns about processing backlogs. The team then turns to discussing how the reconciliation law will directly impact several programs housed within the Higher Education Act (HEA).
OTC Inside the Beltway: All Things New - Executive Orders, Melanie Storey, PSLF and IDR Updates
April 4, 2025 - Beth is joined by Jill and Hugh to discuss some of the latest headlines impacting student financial aid. Kicking things off on an exciting note, Beth provides some background on NASFAA’s new President & CEO, Melanie Storey, who will be joining the team on May 1.
OTC Inside the Beltway: Reconciliation Takes Shape in the House and the White House ‘Skinny’ Budget|
May 9, 2025 - Melanie is joined by Rachel, Hugh, Sarah, and Nalia to dive into how the congressional budgeting process could impact student financial aid. To kick things off, Melanie and Hugh discuss the latest developments in the reconciliation process, where a House committee recently advanced portions of the package that would make some drastic changes to programs housed within the Department of Education (ED).
OTC AskRegs Experts: Shutdown Interruptions and an Update on FWS Guidance
October 3, 2025 - Hugh is joined by David to discuss how the lapse in appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 2026 is impacting Department of Education (ED) services and programs. David shares some *guidance from the department, which outlined how over 80% of ED and Federal Student Aid (FSA) staff are being furloughed during the shutdown.
OTC AskRegs Experts: Federal Tax Information and More FAFSA Guidance
March 7, 2025 - Jill and Sarah discuss FAFSA updates concerning a new definition for Federal Tax Information (FTI) and 2026-27 guidance. Jill kicks things off by detailing the new FTI definition and its implications for data sharing policies.
OTC AskRegs Experts: Working Through SAP Blind Spots
January 31, 2025 - David and Hugh work through some possible blind spots for standards for academic progress (SAP) and discuss how institutions can review their policies and procedures to ensure they are up to date with the latest regulatory requirements. David kicks things off with a walk-through of qualitative and quantitative components that schools should be measuring and explains how institutions can calculate those requirements.
Publication Date: 1/6/2026