WASHINGTON – Today, House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) requested a Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of the Department of Education’s (ED) work to return student loan borrowers to repayment.
With student loan payments resuming next month, the Biden administration’s continued failure to provide clear and proper guidance to borrowers demonstrates the low priority it places on ensuring a smooth transition back to repayment. This comes as President Biden announced previously that borrowers will not be penalized or considered delinquent if they miss payments for up to a year, a clear violation of the debt ceiling agreement signed into law earlier this summer. Borrowers who choose not to pay will still be charged interest on their unpaid loans and may be unaware that interest is accruing.
On June 27th, Foxx and Cassidy requested an in-person briefing—to be conducted no later than July 20, 2023—on the Biden administration’s plan to return millions of borrowers to repayment. After repeated stonewalling, ED finally briefed the lawmakers on borrowers’ return to repayment yesterday afternoon. There remain more questions than answers.
“Given the multiple prior deadlines for the return to repayment and the repeated extensions of the payment pause, it is highly likely there will be confusion among borrowers and many who may not take this repayment deadline seriously,” wrote the lawmakers. “The administration’s repeated mixed messages raise questions about the incentives borrowers have to avoid repayment of their loans and about the costs of these actions to taxpayers.”
