Deondra Dixon Include Project Act of 2026
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, a few years ago, I met a young woman who lives in the Chicago suburbs. She told me a story of her college career and what it led to. It was something I had never heard before.
Her experience in trying to pursue a degree leading to law enforcement took her not to the normal, predictable academic sources, but to a new industry, which was opening up in our country--for-profit colleges and universities.
Hers was a sad story. She had been enrolled in one of these for- profit colleges and paid the tuition, took the courses--some of them in person, some of them online--and ultimately went to a counselor and asked if she was headed for a bachelor's degree because of her coursework, and he assured her that she was. She went on to say that she hoped to be able to get into law enforcement--that was her ultimate goal. He gave her assurances that that would happen.
She finished her degree at this for-profit college and university in Chicago and then took her certificate showing her graduation to would- be employers--police departments in the area. They laughed at her, and they said: That is not a real school. That is a for-profit school, and the courses you took don't count. If you want a degree in law enforcement that leads to a real job, you can't get it from a for- profit college and university.
Well, that was a heartbreak to her because she spent years working on it. But what was even worse was, she was so deeply in debt for student loans that she borrowed from this phony university.
She, when I met her, was living in her parents' basement, had no future ahead of her for doing what she thought was the right thing-- getting a college degree.
What she didn't know, and what we know now, is that there are two numbers that tell the story of for-profit colleges and universities. You hear their names like University of Phoenix--that is probably the most prominent one people hear over and over--and you see their advertisements and brochures that are mailed to high school seniors enticing them to sign up for these for-profit schools.
What you don't know is that although only 8 percent of high school graduates go to for-profit colleges and universities--8 percent--30 percent of all student loan defaults are the students from these same schools.
What is going on here? Such a low number--8 percent--going on to these schools and such a high number of loan defaults. That is because they issue worthless degrees and entice these students into deep debt.
Many times, a parent or even a grandparent will cosign on the loans for these for-profit schools; and when everything falls apart, as it is likely to, everybody is held liable and responsible. That is why we have had an ongoing battle here in Washington for years against the for-profit college and university industry.
There was a legal battle in a case called Sweet v. McMahon, which has gone on for years. It finally, this week, came to an end, and it is an important case on the subject of for-profit colleges and universities.
It was the largest class-action settlement against the Federal Government in the history of our Nation. That is life-changing news for nearly half a million Federal student loan borrowers who will receive $23 billion in relief after being misled and defrauded by for-profit colleges.
If you listen to the radio on your morning commute or watch TV after a long days' work, then you have no doubt been hit with flashy advertising from institutions like the University of Phoenix looking to lure in unsuspecting students.
Here is the catch: These institutions often rip off those students, lying about their prospects for a job, their ability to have credits that transfer to any other school, or their likely salary after graduation.
In fact, these schools, as I mentioned, enroll only 8 percent of the students but account for 30 percent of all Federal student loan defaults. Too much debt; too little education.
NPR recently highlighted the story of Jessica Feindt of Michigan. She enrolled at the University of Phoenix to study psychology.
She said she ``paid a lot out of pocket'' and ``through student loans.''
She realized later that the school's recruitment counselor had repeatedly misled her, including by telling her that a degree would be accepted by Michigan graduate programs--that was false.
By the time she had learned her degree was useless, she was already underwater and deeply in debt. So she joined this class-action lawsuit, originally filed during President Trump's first term, to get relief. Mr. President, 4 years later--it took 4 years--she will finally see the relief, which she is entitled to.
The first Trump administration--go figure--denied nearly all of these claims by the students, which a Federal court described as ``disturbingly Kafkaesque.''
But in 2022, President Joe Biden and his administration settled the case and forgave the student loan debts of nearly 300,000 borrowers who had been defrauded. Under the terms of that settlement, borrowers who were not part of the original class had 5 months to file claims. If the Department of Education had not adjudicated the additional claims by early 2026, borrowers still waiting in limbo would be automatically entitled to relief.
But while the Trump administration can quickly green-light permanent tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, as in their so-called Big Beautiful Bill, they hesitated when it came to giving relief to these students who just wanted a fair shot.
In late 2025, the Trump administration asked for an additional 18 months to review the students' claims--students who were defrauded by these schools.
A Federal district judge said ``enough.'' Last month, a panel of three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously upheld this decision. Good.
Like their tactics with DACA recipients and the slow-walking of renewal applications with the USCIS, the administration was asking for more time so that they could bleed out these borrowers and deny relief to hundreds of thousands of students deep in debt living in their parents' basement trying to figure out if they had a future.
This is where the priorities lie. I am glad these borrowers, after years and years of waiting, will finally get the relief they are entitled to.
For the last 15 years or more, I have sent a letter to every high school counselor in the State of Illinois. I send it about the first of the year and warn them: Be careful not to let your students be lured into these for-profit colleges and universities. They are going to send them brochures. They are going to tee them up with all sorts of things on the internet. It will be a dazzling display about the college, which is not a real college; it is a for-profit college and university.
Be careful. The time that you spend there, the money that you spend there may be a total waste or worse. It could be a debt that trails you for years and years, if not decades, in your life.
Thank goodness for these students, the thousands of students who are benefited by President Biden's decision. The courts finally stood by them and gave these students a second chance. It has been a situation I have run into time and again. I have threatened some of these for- profit schools as a way of getting them to drop the loans that they were enforcing on these students because I know what happens in the end.
Students need to be careful. You can't go wrong starting with city colleges and community colleges in your community. It is affordable. There are alternatives there. Most of the time, the hours that you earn there are going to be transferable to real colleges and universities. I beg my young students in Illinois to start there and the student counselors to do their job and discourage kids from getting involved with these for-profit schools. energy grant funding
Mr. President, last October, the Trump administration cut more than $7 billion in energy grant funding going to States across America, including more than $580 million for Illinois. At the time, the administration promised that these cancellations were meant to cut ``waste, fraud, and abuse.'' But someone once told me that in politics there is always a good reason, and then there is always a real reason.
Of the 284 cancelled grants, how many do you think went to a State that voted for President Trump? 100? 50? 10? Of the 284 grants this administration revoked, only one went to a State that voted for Donald Trump. The rest went to blue States. At the time, the Trump administration went through pains to tell us that these cancellations were not political. We knew that could not be true. And now, we have proof.
The Department of Energy admitted in court documents that these cancellations were ``based solely on the political identity of the recipient's state,'' or in other words ``whether the recipient's location was in a Blue State.'' The administration wasn't making policy based on what's best for America. They were making decisions based on the President's vendettas. This is petty, it is unlawful, and it is wrong.
It is especially egregious to cancel these crucial grants when Americans' energy bills are skyrocketing. In the last year alone, Illinoisans paid $210 more for their power, and that number is only expected to go up in light of Trump's war with Iran. You would think that President Trump, who ran on bringing costs down on ``day one,'' would make addressing these record price hikes his top priority. Instead, he has deeply undermined our capacity to lower prices, all to settle petty political scores.
In Illinois, more than $150 million of the cancelled awards were meant to upgrade the power grid. These upgrades would have made the grid more reliable in the face of rising energy demand. Now, that work is in jeopardy. When the government cancels funding for grid upgrades, those needs do not just go away. Instead, utility companies will pass along the cost of upgrades to consumers. My constituents are paying more for their electricity, heating, and cooling because of President Trump.
That is why I am leading Illinois Democrats in a letter to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and OMB Director Russ Vought outlining the harm these cancellations have done to our State over the past 9 months. I urge my Republican colleagues to join in urging this administration to reverse course and reject this administration's blatant defiance of Congress' authority under the Constitution. If this precedent is set, your State could be next to see its funding revoked.
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