In August, the Department announced that it would automatically discharge the loans of over 323,000 disabled borrowers. These borrowers were identified through a matching program with the Social Security Administration (SSA). This announcement follows the Department’s 2019 decision to automatically discharge the loans of veterans with a service-connected disability. The VA auto discharge program is […]

Last month, the Department reversed a DeVos era notice which said that federal student loan servicers were not subject to state consumer protection laws. The Devos interpretation said that states’ laws that protect borrowers from servicers’ false and misleading practices were “preempted” by the Higher Education Act (HEA). Preemption is a legal doctrine in which […]

A borrower defense to repayment (“borrower defense”) allows borrowers who were misled, defrauded, or subject to illegal behavior by their school to discharge the federal student loan debt they borrowed to attend the school. Borrowers can request a discharge by submitting an application to the Department of Education (“ED”) detailing the school’s misconduct. Given recent […]

The CARES Act and subsequent executive actions have provided a much needed reprieve to millions of student loan borrowers during the COVID-19 crisis. Unfortunately, millions of borrowers have been excluded from obtaining relief. Last week, the U.S. Department of Education took some steps to help some of those borrowers by extending the payment suspension to […]

On April 30, 2020, Student Defense and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), with the support of the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), filed a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) and then-Secretary Betsy DeVos, demanding an immediate halt to the Department’s garnishment of student borrowers’ wages, which the Coronavirus Aid, […]

Yesterday, the Department announced an important first step toward fixing the badly broken borrower defense program by rescinding the deeply flawed and unsupported “partial relief” policy adopted by former Secretary DeVos. The Borrower Defense rules were intended to provide relief for borrowers who took on federal student loan debt to attend schools that used deceptive […]

On January 20, 2021, his first day in office, President Biden directed the U.S. Department of Education to extend the coronavirus-related payment suspension and 0% interest rate on certain federal student loans. This relief had been set to expire on January 31, 2021. Hopefully, this is the first of many actions Biden takes to fulfill […]

Today, Congresswoman Pressley, in partnership with Congresswomen Omar and Adams and Chairwoman Maxine Waters, introduced a House companion to Senators Schumer and Warren resolution calling upon President-Elect Biden to cancel $50,000 of federal student loan debt for each borrower. This House resolution demonstrates continued momentum and growing Congressional support for the urgency of administrative student […]

On the campaign trail, President-Elect Biden made a number of student loan promises that would alter the lives of millions of Americans. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, he promised to provide wide-spread cancellation to all federal student loan borrowers(here at 1:10, here at 16:22, here at page 26, here). As we have written before, […]

This week, Congress is ramping up its debate about what protections it should extend as student loan borrowers continue to weather the Coronavirus crisis. These protections cannot come soon enough; on August 1, borrowers will begin to receive notices that the relief provided by the ‘‘Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act’’ or the ‘‘CARES […]