Dems Slam Education Department for Suspending Loan Forgiveness for 3 Million

A group of Democratic senators is demanding answers from the Department of Education on its decision to renege on its obligation to 3 million student loan borrowers enrolled in the Income-Based Repayment program, which forgives any remaining student debt after 300 payments, which typically takes about 25 years.

“We write to express our strong opposition to the Department of Education’s (‘the department’) recent action to suspend forgiveness under the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Program and to demand information on behalf of the millions of student loan borrowers who have been stripped of their ability to access forgiveness for which they are entitled to under law,” the senators wrote in a letter to the department.

“It is unacceptable,” they continued, “for the Trump administration to take any action that delays or denies legally mandated debt relief to borrowers that have been in repayment for over two decades or more.”

The letter was sent by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), Peter Welch (D-Vermont), Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Alex Padilla (D-California), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) and Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island).

While many borrowers wait to receive the debt relief owed to them, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it’s offering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recruits student loan forgiveness up to $60,000. Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” will further punish the average student loan borrower, as it’s expected to significantly increase loan payments.

The Department of Education “quietly made the decision to suspend IBR forgiveness,” the senators wrote. “This decision was made without first notifying Congress or borrowers that the department would pause forgiveness under the program.”

The Education Department not only failed to inform Congress, it appears the department misled federal lawmakers about the status of the program. On July 17, in a briefing to Congress, the department said it was continuing to process forgiveness for IBR borrowers. However, a few days later, The Washington Post reported that the department had indefinitely suspended forgiveness in early July.

After news of the pause broke, the department claimed it had temporarily suspended forgiveness because of a court injunction preventing implementation of the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program, which is an entirely different loan forgiveness program.

The senators pushed back on the department’s claim, writing that the “injunction has been in place for several months, so it is not clear why the department has suddenly — months after the injunction went into place — decided to pause forgiveness that is clearly required by law and not the subject of ongoing litigation.”

The department has not provided a timeline for when it will resume forgiveness, “which is alarming considering many borrowers have already been waiting months for relief,” the senators wrote. The Education Department has said that borrowers who should have their debt discharged during the pause will receive a refund once forgiveness resumes.

“[B]orrowers who have been repaying for decades should not be expected to continue paying beyond the 20- or 25-year timeframe required in law, and the department has provided no assurance that refund payments will be made quickly or in a timely manner,” the senators wrote. “The department should not require borrowers who have fulfilled their legal repayment obligations to continue paying with no guarantee or timeline for relief.”