The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution Thursday overturning U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ borrower defense rule created in August, which House Democrats say favors predatory universities while limiting student protections under the borrower defense policy.
The resolution, H.J. Res. 76, passed with a 231-180 vote tally, with all dissenting votes coming from Republicans, who argue DeVos’ rule could save the federal government $11 million over the next decade.
Meanwhile, Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., who sponsored the resolution, stated, “Passing this resolution in the House made it clear that we care more about defending defrauded students than enriching predatory schools. We told DeVos that we’re not going to sit on the sidelines while these institutions scam our families, our friends, our neighbors and our veterans.”
Created in 1992, the borrower defense policy allows students to receive federal student loan relief after being scammed or misled by a fraudulent university or college. Prior to 2016, however, there were few guidelines in law or regulations detailing how borrowers could seek relief or how the Department of Education would adjudicate that relief.
Then, when the for-profit Corinthian Colleges Inc. collapsed in 2015 and left thousands of its students in debt, President Barack Obama’s Department of Education created the Borrower Defense to Repayment Rule, which stipulated clearer guidelines as to how students could seek forgiveness. For instance, Obama’s rule allowed borrowers to file a claim as a group and gave them six years to do so from the moment they discovered they were misled or defrauded.
DeVos, however, argued that Obama’s rule made it too easy for students to seek forgiveness. In
effect, her rule requires that all students file their own, individual claims and that they do so within three years from the moment they left the school, regardless of whether misconduct was discovered after that three year window.
