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The Education Department will consider ways to provide debt relief to student loan borrowers who are experiencing hardship, the agency announced Wednesday.
The department’s rule-making sessions on debt relief wrapped up in December, but members of the negotiating committee left unsatisfied because none of the plans on the table addressed borrowers experiencing hardship who wouldn’t benefit from other options. In recent weeks, consumer protection advocates and congressional Democrats called on the department to reconvene the debt-relief committee for another session specifically focused on a hardship proposal.
“While we appreciate the efforts of the Department and the negotiating committee, we are concerned that, without full consideration of cancellation targeted toward borrowers facing financial hardship, the rule will not provide adequate debt relief for the most vulnerable borrowers,” a group of Congressional Democrats wrote in a letter sent last week to the department.
The debt relief negotiating committee will meet to discuss the subject Feb. 22-23. The department will release its initial proposal a week before the meeting.
“The Biden-Harris Administration will never stop working to deliver student debt relief for borrowers,” Under Secretary James Kvaal said in the department’s news release. “We look forward to discussing another avenue for borrower relief related to hardship at our next negotiation session.”
