Waiting until almost the very last minute on a Friday, President Trump issued his first veto of domestic policy legislation. This veto was of House Joint Resolution 76, sponsored by Representative Susie Lee (D-NV), a bill that would’ve prevented Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from implementing her new rule determining how defrauded student borrowers could get loan forgiveness.
The “borrower defense to repayment” rule provides the Secretary of Education the authority to discharge student debt if student borrowers were defrauded by their college. In 2016, the Obama Administration issued a new regulation for the borrower defense rule after the floodgates opened with students claiming fraud from the now-defunct Corinthian College.
Secretary DeVos thought the Obama-era rule was too generous and recently rewrote this rule making it very hard for borrowers to receive loan forgiveness. Her new rule created a really high standard, placing a nearly impossible burden of proof on student borrowers.