Photo Courtesy of U.S. Department of Education
Twenty-three senators recently reached out to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to expand student debt relief in the department’s upcoming higher education rulemaking.
By Forum Staff
Nearly two-dozen senators recently reached out to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to expand student debt relief in the department’s upcoming higher education rulemaking.
In a letter to Cardona, the senator’s highlighted the need for policies that improve and expand existing student loan repayment and forgiveness programs to ensure borrowers can access the relief they are owed.
The senators offered the following suggestions for overarching approaches to major topic areas:
The department should simplify and consolidate the income-driven repayment plans and expand the relief they provide to struggling borrowers. The department should use its authority to streamline IDR plans by sunsetting the current IDR plans and creating a new streamlined IDR plan that is easy to navigate and available to all current and future federal student loan borrowers.
The department should reverse the Trump administration rules that harmed student loan borrowers who had been cheated or defrauded by their schools and establish a single “borrower defense” standard for all federal student loans. The “borrower defense” rule established by the previous administration was a devastating blow for students cheated out of their education and savings by predatory for-profit colleges.
The department should reinstate automatic discharges of loans from closed schools. “First and foremost, the department should reinstate a policy for borrowers to receive a discharge automatically after their schools close and without the need for an application,” the senators wrote. “Additionally, Section 437(c)(3) of the Higher Education Act provides the authority for the Secretary to discharge the loans from ‘an institution at which the student was unable to complete a course of study’ and makes no mention of transfers to other institutions,” the senators wrote.
The department should swiftly move forward with automatic discharges of loans for borrowers with significant disabilities and expand the population of eligible borrowers. Requiring borrowers to submit an application, and be subject to a “monitoring period” of potential earnings, has created unnecessary and harmful barriers to these borrowers getting the relief they deserve, the senators said.
The department should close donut holes and improve eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The department’s rules for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness should codify recent improvements in consideration of payments and payment and the application and employer certification process, the senators wrote
“Too many Americans across the country are saddled with student loan debt, and they need relief. I urge the Department of Education to take important steps like simplifying loan repayment options and closing donut holes in the public service loan forgiveness programs to support hard-working Americans and tackle this growing crisis,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). “Individuals looking to better their lives and pursue an education shouldn’t be penalized with years of debt for doing so. I look forward to working with the Biden administration to enact these recommendations and improve the faith of borrowers in the federal student loan system.”
