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Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I want to compliment my friend the Senator from Ohio for always being willing to speak out on behalf of important people all across the country. I agree with him that organized labor for literally decades has always protected working people. We need to bear that in mind as we sort through the issues that confront us on a regular basis. So I thank him for his comments. Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act

Mr. President, I rise today to actually celebrate a major accomplishment for thousands of Americans who have been trapped for, many times, decades in exploitative joint student loans.

This is an issue that is actually near and dear to me because I have been working on it for 7 years, since hearing from a constituent way back in 2015.

Sara from Northern Virginia was part of a group of student loan borrowers who entered into something called a joint consolidation loan, which allowed married couples to combine their student debt into a single loan. The truth was, though, that sounded good, but Congress didn't allow anyone to unwind those loans in the event of a divorce or an abusive relationship.

So finally, in 2006, Congress got rid of the whole program. But when they got rid of the whole program, they didn't retroactively create an option for those folks who had entered into these joint consolidation loans between 1993 and 2006.

So when my constituent Sara had divorced from her husband when she was living in Texas, she was still responsible for this loan. So all of the debt that had originally been his suddenly fell upon her shoulders. The divorced husband stopped paying the debt. Yet she was still responsible, and she, Sara, had to continue facing the consequences.

Now, she was a single mom of two, a public school teacher. Sara was financially on the hook for her defaulting husband's student debts. Her credit suffered dramatically. She even thought she was going to lose her teacher's license.

Now, she did a lot--great researcher. I talked to her a couple times. After looking for a way out, she found that the only way to fix this problem was for an act of Congress.

Well, she contacted my office, and we found out that this was not a one-off circumstance, but, literally, there were thousands of Americans all across the country who had fallen into this trap. A lot of them were domestic violence survivors, who, even though they had gotten out of an abusive relationship, were still stuck with paying off the debts of their abuser. Many of these were people who were victims of financial abuse and, again, completely responsible for a loan, in many cases, that they had never even taken out.

Others were unable to save for retirement, for their kids. We had a lot of teachers who were otherwise eligible for the public service loan forgiveness programs, but because they had entered into the joint consolidated student loans, they suddenly weren't eligible.

So we did some research and spent some time looking into it. In 2017, I introduced the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act to solve this problem and find a way for, oftentimes, innocent borrowers to get out of these consolidations.

Now, starting back in 2015--I have got to acknowledge, it took 7 years. Something that was this much of a no-brainer shouldn't have taken that long, but I am proud to be here today and report that we did get it through Congress on a bipartisan basis.

Here in the Senate, I am grateful for a lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. I am grateful for the Presiding Officer. We actually passed it on a unanimous basis, and in the House we passed it with a broad bipartisan coalition.

That is a testament to what a critical, commonsense fix this is--one that will actually change the lives of thousands of Americans, literally, overnight.

Now, since we introduced this law the first time, my office has heard from so many Americans who are desperate to get this done.

I remember hearing from Chris from Indiana, who said he spent over 16 years thinking about this loan every day and waking up at night trying to create a strategy to pay this loan off.

He got back to us and he said:

For the first time, I may be able to put my mind at peace.

We heard from Sharon, who is a seventh grade teacher, whose former partner was totally unresponsive on meeting their obligations on this joint consolidation. Now, she said:

I don't have to do this anymore. I get to live my life.

She gets to actually retire this year because, once President Biden signs this law, it will immediately relieve her of this obligation.

Or Jessica, who said:

I am finally about to be free . . . of one last way my ex controls me.

Again, I can't imagine entering into this arrangement and then getting out of a relationship, often sometimes an abusive relationship, and that ex still trying to control this person by not meeting their share of the obligations. It just was wrong.

Next, Amy, who falls into the category of otherwise--because, I believe, she was a teacher, she was able to get public service loan forgiveness and worked for years on something she should qualify for, but if you had entered into one of these joint consolidations, you didn't get this benefit.

So Amy said:

I've never been able to take advantage of a single debt- relief program.

This bill will change that, obviously in terms of public service loans but also in terms of some of the proposals that President Biden has put forward.

All these people have been asking for is a chance to not unduly bear the joint burden of a program that even the Congress and the Federal Government decided in 2006 wasn't fair, but when we unwound it, we didn't unwind it, literally, for thousands of people who had fallen into this program between 1993 and 2006.

Now, we are through the House. We are through the Senate. We still have to hit one thing. And while the White House has indicated that the President supports this legislation, we have to get it signed right away because, when we think about these teachers and nurses and other folks who met their goal of what they have to qualify in critical areas to qualify for public student debt forgiveness, you know, the truth is, if they are going to get that benefit this year, they have got to make that application by October 31.

So before Halloween, these folks and countless others are waiting for them to simply apply for a right that, in many cases, they should have been granted 5, 10, 15 years ago.

And as I said, many of the folks in this category are public school teachers. They are government workers. They are nurses. They all have met the otherwise, oftentimes, stringent requirements for public service loan forgiveness, but this law has to be a law in time for them to be able to timely apply for this relief before Halloween.

So I am hoping--the President has indicated he supports this bill, but the President has got to sign this law as soon as possible so borrowers can finally experience freedom from financial and domestic abuse, freedom to control their own financial future, and freedom to enjoy the exact same benefits that other teachers and public servants have across the country.

I would like to close by saying that, this week, I actually had a chance to call Sara, who originally brought this issue to my attention. She told me that, without this law, and even if she had continued making all of her monthly payments for her divorced husband, it would have been impossible for her to get rid of this debt in her lifetime. She would literally have been tied to her ex-husband, and she left Texas to get away from that ex-husband, to move to Virginia. She would literally be tied to that former spouse for the rest of her life.

For Sara and for literally thousands of other borrowers impacted by this program, it is time for the President to sign this law and provide these borrowers the relief they deserve.

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