{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-durbin-whitehouse-warnock-push-doj-ed-for-expanded-outreach-on-discharging-student-loan-debt-in-bankruptcy", "Warren, Durbin, Whitehouse, Warnock Push DOJ, ED For Expanded Outreach on Discharging Student Loan Debt in Bankruptcy", "2024-10-28", "2024", "2024-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", "warren", "https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Warren, Durbin, Whitehouse, Warnock Push DOJ, ED For Expanded Outreach on Discharging Student Loan Debt in Bankruptcy\n\nNew data show that vast majority of borrowers using the new guidance received recommendations for either full or partial debt discharge\n\n\u201cWe encourage your agencies to continue to expand awareness of the guidance so that the 43 million borrowers in the United States... may be able to access relief if they need to file for bankruptcy\u201d\n\nText of Letter (PDF)\n\nWashington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (ED) commending the agencies on their progress in helping borrowers who are struggling financially to discharge their student loans in bankruptcy and asking them to continue expanding awareness of the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s new policy.\n\nIn November 2022, at the urging of Senator Warren, Senator Durbin, and others, the DOJ and ED issued guidance to DOJ attorneys that sought to streamline the process of discharging student loans in bankruptcy. Prior to this change, borrowers had to undergo a confusing, invasive, and time-consuming process in bankruptcy court to prove repayment would constitute an \u201cundue hardship.\u201d\n\n99.9% of borrowers who filed bankruptcy from 2011 to 2019 did not have their student loans discharged \u2014 borrowers came to believe that there was no way out of the crushing weight of student loans, even through bankruptcy.\n\n\u201cThe \u2018undue hardship\u2019 standard historically set an unnecessarily high bar that essentially required borrowers to demonstrate a certainty of hopelessness to obtain relief,\u201d wrote the senators.\n\nSince DOJ and ED\u2019s new process was announced, more and more borrowers have received relief. New data obtained by Senator Warren\u2019s office show that, under the Biden administration\u2019s new guidance, 85% of borrowers who sought relief received recommendations for either full or partial debt discharge.\n\nThe high rates of total or partial discharge for those who have applied through the new guidance suggest that many other borrowers could also qualify if they applied. The senators are pushing to expand awareness on the more transparent, fair, and accessible process.\n\n\u201cWe thank you for your agencies\u2019 ongoing commitment to helping borrowers struggling with student debt and urge continued outreach to expand awareness of the streamlined process for qualified borrowers,\u201d concluded the senators.\n\nSenator Warren has led the fight to reform our higher education system, cancel student loan debt, and hold student loan servicers accountable:\n\nIn October 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) celebrated new federal student debt relief, bringing the total number of Americans who have had their debt canceled under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program during the Biden-Harris Administration to a historic 1 million people and counting.\n\nIn September 2024, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Merkley (D-Ore.) released a new report examining the impact of the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s new Higher Education Act rule, finding that low- and middle-income borrowers, seniors, women, and Black borrowers will receive enormous benefits from the new rule.\n\nIn August 2024, Senator Warren joined Senators Jeff Merkley, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to launch an investigation into the reported mishandling of student loan transfers by MOHELA, Nelnet and credit reporting agencies.\n\nIn August 2024, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) led over 30 lawmakers in a letter urging student loan servicer Navient to reform its flawed process to cancel the private student loans of borrowers who attended fraudulent, for-profit colleges.\n\nIn July 2024, Senators Warren, Ron Wyden, Chris Van Hollen, and Bernie Sanders, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, cautioning the Department of Education on Federal Student Aid\u2019s transition to the Unified Servicing and Data Solution system.\n\nIn July 2024, Senators Warren, Schumer, and Sanders released a joint statement on the American Federation of Teachers\u2019 lawsuit against MOHELA for allegedly overcharging and misleading student loan borrowers.\n\nIn May 2024, Senators Warren and King led their colleagues in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, urging them to provide guidance and communication to borrowers as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program transfers from MOHELA to the Department of Education.\n\nIn May 2024, Senator Warren led a growing coalition of senators in urging the Department of Education to hold student loan servicer MOHELA accountable for its failures.\n\nIn May 2024, Senator Warren and 24 members of the U.S. Senate sent a letter to Senator Tammy Baldwin, Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, encouraging them to provide $2.7 billion in funding to the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) in fiscal year (FY) 2025.\n\nIn May 2024, Senators Warren, Carper, Kaine, and Representative Don Davis (D-N.C.) called on the Department of Defense (DoD) to release data on the Postsecondary Education Complaint System (PECS), a centralized database to track complaints against schools who participate in the Tuition Assistance (TA) and My Career Advancement Account Scholarship (MyCAA) program.\n\nIn April 2024, Senator Warren led eight of her colleagues in sending a letter to David L. Yowan, President and Chief Executive Officer of student loan servicer Navient, urging the servicer to cancel decades-old private student loans pushed onto borrowers attending fraudulent, for-profit colleges.\n\nIn April 2024, Senators Warren, Blumenthal, Markey, and Van Hollen released a new report: Servicing Scandals: Student Loan Servicers\u2019 Failures During Return to Repayment, which reveals a decades-long pattern of student loan servicer incompetence and misconduct that has affected millions of borrowers nationwide.\n\nIn April 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren led a hearing on student loan servicer Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA) and its failures during borrowers\u2019 return to repayment, including MOHELA\u2019s mismanagement of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.\n\nIn March 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, along with U.S. Representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Ra\u00fal Grijalva (D-Ariz.), and John Larson (D-Conn.), led their colleagues in calling on the Social Security Administration (SSA), the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), and the U.S. Department of Education to end the practice of offsetting Social Security benefits to pay off defaulted student loans.\n\nIn February 2024, Senator Warren, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released a statement calling for an investigation into student loan mismanagement by MOHELA.\n\nIn January 2024, Senators Warren, Schumer, Sanders, Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), along with Representative Ayanna Pressley, Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Representative Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), led their colleagues in calling on the Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to host a fourth session of the student debt negotiated rulemaking to consider relief for borrowers experiencing financial hardship.\n\nIn December 2023, U.S. Senators Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Ed Markey,, and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) sent follow-up letters to student loan servicers \u2013 MOHELA, EdFinancial, Nelnet, and Maximus \u2013 raising concerns about borrowers\u2019 problems with return to repayment, requesting information about the borrower experience, and pushing back on the servicers\u2019 claim that budget shortfalls limit their ability provide quality customer service to millions of borrowers.\n\nIn December 2023, Senators Warren, Schumer, Sanders, Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, urging him to leverage his existing and full authority under the Higher Education Act to provide expanded student debt relief to working and middle-class borrowers.\n\nIn August 2023, Senator Warren, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senators Alex Padilla and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar, Jim Clyburn, and Frederica Wilson led 79 other lawmakers in a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to swiftly deliver on his promise to deliver student debt cancellation to working and middle class families by early 2024.\n\nIn October 2022, Senator Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) visited communities across Massachusetts to celebrate the Biden administration\u2019s student debt cancellation plan and help residents sign up for student loan relief.\n\nIn March 2022, Senator Warren, along with Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Senator Brown and Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Mark Takano (D-Calif.), urged Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to swiftly discharge the loans of borrowers defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges and universities, including those operated by Corinthian College.\n\nIn January 2022, Senator Warren, along with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Representatives Jayapal, Pressley, Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Katie Porter (D-Calif.) led more than 80 colleagues in a bicameral letter to the Department of Education calling for it to release the memo outlining the Biden administration\u2019s legal authority to cancel federal student loan debt and immediately cancel up to $50,000 of debt for Federal student loan borrowers.\n\nIn April 2021, Senators Warren and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) led a group of colleagues in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urging the Department of Education to take swift action to automatically remove all federally-held student loan borrowers from default.\n\n###\n\nNext Article Previous Article", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:55:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-durbin-whitehouse-warnock-push-doj-ed-for-expanded-outreach-on-discharging-student-loan-debt-in-bankruptcy"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6826391220092773, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}