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

Floor Speech

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

I thank Representatives Bobby Scott and Susie Lee for their leadership on this important resolution. I rise to support H.J. Res. 76 which blocks Secretary DeVos' attempts to undermine the much-needed borrower defense rule.

The original rule was implemented in 2016 to cancel the debt of those students defrauded by their colleges. The Secretary's replacement rule is shameful. It would cancel only 3 percent of the student loans that result from school misconduct.

While totally unacceptable, the Secretary's actions are nothing new. The for-profit college industry has been exploiting students for decades, and I have been fighting them back for just as long.

As an assemblywoman in California, I authored one of the Nation's first laws regulating for-profit schools. As a Congresswoman, I passed the 85/15 rule, which limited the amount of Federal funding for-profit colleges receive from taxpayers.

In 2015, when the for-profit Corinthian Colleges closed down after years of fraud and misconduct, I was one of the Members of Congress to endorse and support the Corinthian 100, a group of former students who refused to pay back loans accrued while attending Corinthian.

This Congress, I continue fighting for students. Last year, the House Financial Services Committee held two hearings examining the student loan crisis. Last month, the committee approved three bills that will provide strong student borrower protections, including for those harmed by for-profit colleges.

Congress should not stand idly by while Secretary DeVos tries to make it easier for students to get defrauded by for-profit schools.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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