evidence: The higher education sector itself is an important piece of the U.S. economy. In the fall of 2013, institutions of higher education that participated in Title IV federal financial aid programs employed almost 4 million people (NCES 2015). The higher education sector also confers a large advantage to the United States in the global market for talent. In the 2015–16 academic year, more than 1 million international students studied at U.S. colleges and universities. These students contributed more than $32 billion to the economy and supported more than 400,000 jobs (NAFSA 2016). [...] Much of the federal investment in institutions of higher education has flowed through grants and loans to students. Over the past decade, there have been substantial increases to the Pell Grant program, a conversion to federal direct lending, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit has been made permanent. Federal spending on grants and loans to students peaked in 2010 at $192 billion. According to the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), Pell Grant expansions initiated during the Great Recession have led an additional quarter million students to pursue and complete a college degree, resulting in $20 billion more in aggregate earnings (CEA 2016).