A few days before President Bush officially released his 2008 budget, administration officials announced that it would contain a historic increase in the maximum Pell Grant. The increase in Pell Grants would be paid for by cutting subsidies for student loans, a step that experts predicted could induce lenders to offer fewer benefits to borrowers. And the additional money to pay for the Pell awards would come from eliminating the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which augments Pell Grants for low-income students. Furthermore, the author states that beyond student aid, Mr. Bush's budget plan contained mixed news for higher education. His proposal calls for continuing to increase the budgets of the National Science Foundation and the Energy Department, major sources of research grants for academe. Advocates for biomedical research were dismayed when they examined Mr. Bush's plan for the National Institutes of Health, the largest source of money for academic science.