William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. DEAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and all the members of the committee for their fine work in the proposed legislation.

I rise today in support of my amendment, No. 11, to H.R. 6395. This amendment would provide much-needed assistance to roughly 6 million private student loan borrowers by authorizing appropriations of up to $10,000 per borrower to pay down their student loan debt.

Additionally, this amendment would require private student loan servicers to modify the loan to lower the monthly payments by re- amortizing the loan and/or lowering the interest rate when the borrower resumes payment.

This is a commonsense requirement that helps both the borrowers and the servicers, who will receive a lump sum payment and should, therefore, make sure that subsequent payments by borrowers are affordable and sustainable.

Private student loan borrowers did not receive any of the reprieve that the Federal student loan borrowers were able to access through the CARES Act. This means that roughly 6 million private student loan borrowers have had to continue to make payments during an unprecedented health and economic crisis, hurting not only their economic health but our country's, too.

We know the private student loan borrowers are particularly vulnerable. Prior to the pandemic, one in seven student loan borrowers were more than 90 days delinquent.

COVID-19 has only exacerbated this problem. According to the Student Borrower Protection Center, the number of private student loan borrowers unable to make payment obligations between January and April of this year increased by 36 percent.

This amendment would rectify the inequity we created in not including private student loan borrowers and bring them much-needed assistance, just as this body did with Federal student loan borrowers.

Importantly, this amendment will help our veterans, who take out an average of $8,000 in private student loan debt to attend for-profit schools each year, and for the estimated 200,000 servicemembers who collectively owe billions in student loan debt. While many were able to access relief for Federal funds, these borrowers were not. They are languishing from the burden of private student loans.

This amendment is good for our borrowers, good for our economy, good for our veterans. I urge Members to support this amendment.

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Ms. DEAN. Mr. Speaker, this amendment is a valuable amendment to tackle what we knew before the pandemic was a problem: $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, $119 billion of that for private student loans.

What we do know is, while the default rate on private student loans is less, it amounts to $4 billion of defaulting private student loan debts.

That is not an inconsequential amount of money.

This amendment really comes from me as a former professor, as a mother, and as a grandmother. The burden of student loan debt in this country is too high, and now, as a result of a pandemic, through no fault of their own, many borrowers are falling into delinquency, which will hurt our economy, will hurt their buying power, and will hurt their credit rating for a long time to come. So I proudly produced this amendment, and I ask for support.

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Ms. DEAN. Just for some final thoughts, Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate that this is a commonsense requirement that helps both the servicers and the borrowers. Remember, the servicers will receive a lump-sum payment and should, therefore, be able to make sure that the subsequent payments by borrowers are sustainable for borrowers.

Forbearance is something that we built into the CARES Act, but not in any way for student loan borrowers. This is not without precedent. It is valuable to help student loan borrowers when, through no fault of their own, they are in an economic position of possible default.

I will close, mindful of the great loss that we had over the weekend. I am mindful, prayerful, and thankful for the role model and friendship of our colleague, John Lewis, and how he fought for equity for all people and how he fought to lift up others.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to support my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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