[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 177 (Thursday, October 7, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        STUDENT LOAN DEBT RELIEF

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, there has been a controversy going on 
the last several years which has really been to the detriment of many 
good people.
  In 2007, Congress made a promise to college students. Here is what we 
said 14 years ago: If you will give us 10 years of life in public 
service and you make your student loan payments during that 10-year 
period of time, at the end of it, America will forgive the remainder of 
your student debt.
  We said that, and more than a million people took us up on the 
promise. They passed up perhaps higher salaries in more lucrative 
professions in order to serve the country. Then they discovered at the 
end of the 10-year period that the loan forgiveness they were promised 
wasn't coming. Nearly 99 percent of those who applied under the Public 
Service Loan Forgiveness Program were denied relief, often for 
superficial clerical errors, loan servicing mistakes, or other matters 
beyond their control.
  Well, good news: Those days of broken promises are over. Yesterday, 
the Biden administration announced important changes to this program to 
help hundreds of thousands of borrowers finally get the relief we 
promised over 10 years ago. The Education Department estimates the 
changes will immediately erase the debt of 22,000 borrowers, more than 
the total number of loans that have been forgiven so far under the 
program. All told, more than 550,000 borrowers could see a reduction in 
the amount of additional time they make in payments.

  Servicemembers whose loans were deferred while they were on Active 
Duty will have those periods of duty applied towards payments, as they 
should be. This is good news, and it is long overdue.
  Many of my Democratic colleagues and I tried for 4 years during the 
Trump administration to fix this program. They ignored us. So I want to 
thank President Biden and Education Secretary Cardona for following 
through on their commitment to fix this important program and recognize 
the essential work of these public servants who sacrifice for this 
country and for the people who live here and should receive what we 
promised--helping hands on their student loans.

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