Published: December 2019

Congress steps in to overturn DeVos borrower defense rule

In September, the Department of Education released a new version of the "Borrower Defense to Repayment" rule that would make it virtually impossible for students cheated by their college to cancel their student loans. Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Susie Lee have introduced a Congressional Review Act challenge to repeal this rule and restore stronger student protections put in place in a 2016 Borrower Defense rule.

Student loan borrowers deserve financial protection when they are defrauded or cheated by their schools. The U.S. Department of Education's 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. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s new rule makes the process of applying for and granting borrower defense forgiveness unnecessarily difficult and burdensome for the students she is 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. Consumer Action and coalition advocates applaud Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Susan Lee for their effort of challenging the new borrower defense rule and replacing it with the 2016 rule.

Lead Organization

The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS)

Other Organizations

AFL-CIO | AFSCME | Allied Progress | American Association of University Professors | American Federation of Teachers | Americans for Financial Reform | Association of Young Americans (AYA) | Campaign for America’s Future | Center for Public Interest Law | Center for Responsible Lending | Children's Advocacy Institute | CLASP | Clearinghouse on Women's Issues | Consumer Action | Consumer Advocacy and Protection Society (CAPS) at Berkeley Law | Consumer Federation of America | Consumer Federation of California | Demos | Duke Consumer Rights Project | East Bay Community Law Center | Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath) | The Education Trust | Empire Justice Center | Feminist Majority Foundation | Government Accountability Project | Higher Education Loan Coalition (HELC) | Hildreth Institute | Housing and Economic Rights Advocates | The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) | Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition | NAACP | National Association for College Admission Counseling | National Association of Consumer Advocates | National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) | National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients) | National Education Association | National Urban League | New America Higher Education Program | New Jersey Citizen Action | One Wisconsin Now | PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts) | | Project on Predatory Student Lending | Public Citizen | Public Counsel | Public Good Law Center | Public Law Center | Service Employees International Union (SEIU) | Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) | Student Debt Crisis | Student Defense | Student Veterans of America | Third Way | U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) | UnidosUS | Veterans Education Success | Veterans for Common Sense | Young Invincibles

More Information

To read the coalition letter in full, please click here.

For more information, please visit TICAS.

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