Providing for Congressional Disapproval of Rule Submitted By Department of Education Relating to ``Borrower Defense Institutional Accountability''

Floor Speech

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Nevada for her fierce leadership on this.

I rise in strong support of this resolution to block Betsy DeVos' callous attempt to rewrite the borrower defense repayment rule. That original rule protected student borrowers who have been cheated by predatory, for-profit colleges.

This rule change would make it nearly impossible for defrauded students to have their loans forgiven, and it strips away justice for 240,000 borrowers whose claims the Trump administration has refused to process. That includes my own constituents, whom I had a roundtable with, and they have filed claims after their school, the for-profit Art Institute of Seattle, abruptly closed last year.

Some of those students have rightly applied for loan forgiveness through the borrower defense to repayment process because they are ineligible for closed school discharge, and now they face extreme barriers to the relief that they deserve because Secretary DeVos has put profits before the students she took an oath to serve.

One of those students said: I am left with no degree, extra thousands of dollars in private loans that they pressured me to get. I feel tricked, guilted, and screwed.

Today, Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this resolution that will defend students, and I call on the House to also pass the College Affordability Act, which will crack down on predatory for-profit colleges in a comprehensive manner.

I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Ms. FOXX of North Carolina.

Mr. Speaker, we have to make sure the American people understand the truth, and it is especially important when we are on the floor of the House.

What has been happening here this morning is that apples and oranges are being compared, and it is very important that that not happen here because that can mislead the public.

I think most of us learned this in school. When laws are passed and rules are passed, they go forward, not backward, Mr. Speaker. The new rules go forward. They apply in the future. They don't go backward. They don't affect the people who were in school in some of these schools that closed before.

Those students, unfortunately for those students, are under the previous rule, the Obama rule, and that is how they are being handled. That is the major problem here.

Our colleagues are saying many of these people didn't know what the rules were. That is not the fault of the Federal Government, Mr. Speaker. It is up to the students to understand the rules.

And, yes, many of them are having difficult times because the rule is so bad. That is exactly what the new rule is trying to fix. It is trying to bring clarity and help these students understand when they will be able to apply.

But the students who were at Corinthian and ITT are being handled under the Obama-era rule, and that is exactly why they are having problems. We have been pointing that out over and over and over again, yet our colleagues refuse to acknowledge that that is the nub of the problem.

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