Home News Durbin, Lee Lead Congressional Effort To Overturn Devos Borrower Defense Rule

Durbin, Lee Lead Congressional Effort To Overturn Devos Borrower Defense Rule

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New Rule Eliminates More Than $11 Billion In Relief To Defrauded Borrowers And Guts Critical Borrower Protections

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Representative Susie Lee (D-NV-03) today led the introduction of a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval on Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ rewritten borrower defense rule that gutted essential protections for student borrowers and taxpayers. CRA resolutions of disapproval allow Congress to overturn regulatory actions of federal agencies with a simple majority vote in both chambers. A time for consideration of the resolutions on the floor of each chamber will be coordinated with House and Senate leadership.

“This rule is another Trump-DeVos giveaway to the notorious for-profit colleges at the expense of defrauded student borrowers. Senators will now have a chance to go on the record: Are you with the students or the predatory industry that defrauded them with worthless degrees and a lifetime of debt?” Senator Durbin said.

“Student loan borrowers deserve financial protection when they are defrauded or cheated by their schools—it’s as simple as that. The original 2016 Borrower Defense Rule was a commonsense policy meant to level the playing field between students and the predatory colleges taking advantage of them. But Secretary DeVos’s new rule makes the process of applying for and granting borrower defense forgiveness unnecessarily difficult and burdensome for the students who we are supposed to be protecting. The original Borrower Defense Rule was projected to secure $17 billion in relief for defrauded students by 2020. According to the Department of Education’s own estimates, the new DeVos rule is expected to garner only a fraction of that. Our bicameral bill overturns this harmful new rule and maintains the original, pro-student Borrower Defense Rule. Instead of easing regulations and oversight on predatory for-profit schools, we need to stand up for students and open up quality, affordable opportunities in education for everyone,” Representative Lee said.

“Student loan borrowers who have been cheated out of their educations should have the Department of Education’s support, but Secretary DeVos is once again siding with predatory, for-profit colleges instead—giving them a free pass and costing struggling students billions in debt relief. This is backwards and unconscionable, and I hope every senator will join us in sending a clear message to the Secretary that this won’t stand,” said Senator Patty Murray, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).

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