U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s controversial borrower-defense rule cleared one hurdle with President Trump’s veto Friday evening of a congressional resolution that would have undone it. But the rule, which would make it harder for borrowers to have their student debt forgiven if they were defrauded by their colleges, still faces a legal challenge before it is due to go into effect July 1.
Still ongoing is a suit challenging the law in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, brought in February by the Project on Predatory Student Lending and Public Citizen Litigation Group on behalf of the New York Legal Assistance Group. “The rule is terrible. It is bad policy and it is legally indefensible, and students are going to defeat it in court,” Eileen Connor, the Project on Predatory Lending’s legal director, said in a statement Sunday.
As for the political obstacle, advocates acknowledged an override is not expected, even though 10 Republican senators and six members of the House joined Democrats in passing the resolution opposing the rule.