WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today released the following statement after the Senate voted 55-41 on a motion to proceed to the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval overturning Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ rewritten borrower defense rule:
“With a bipartisan vote today, the Senate is one step closer to ensuring that veterans and student borrowers who were defrauded by their schools will still have the opportunity to seek financial relief. These students were lied to by predatory for-profit schools and are drowning in student loan debt because of it. They just want a chance to get on with their lives. Secretary DeVos’ rewritten borrower defense rule makes that nearly impossible, and the Senate must vote to disapprove it,” Durbin said.
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In January, the House of Representatives voted on a bipartisan basis to pass its version of the measure, H.J.Res. 76 introduced by U.S. Representative Susie Lee (D-NV-03).
The DeVos borrower defense rule makes it almost impossible for borrowers who are defrauded by their school or harmed by their school’s closure to receive the relief to which they are entitled, and which Congress intended, under the Higher Education Act (HEA). According to an analysis by The Institute for College Access and Success, the DeVos borrower defense rule will cancel just three percent of all loans associated with misconduct.
CRA resolutions of disapproval allow Congress to overturn regulatory actions of federal agencies with a simple majority vote in both chambers.
