Higher Ed Policy Roundup: Vol. 8 - Issue 33

The Biden-Harris Administration announced that it will be postponing collection attempts such as garnishment of wages, tax refunds, and Social Security benefits of defaulted borrowers until after the November election. The administration’s Fresh Start program, which shielded defaulted borrowers from collection attempts for a year, ended on October 2, 2024, raising questions about when the Education Department (ED) would begin resuming its efforts to collect on defaulted accounts. In a statement, the administration said that "defaulted borrowers won’t see collections until 2025." As of June 2024, there were nearly six million defaulted federal student loan borrowers.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report examining how, if enacted, the Biden-Harris Administration’s budget proposals would affect budgetary outcomes relating to the CBO’s most recent baseline budget projections.

The Urban Institute published a fact sheet reviewing college students’ basic needs in the Great Lakes region.

The following bill(s) have been recently introduced for consideration by the 118th Congress (2023-2024):

H.R. 9931 – [Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-12)] would provide bankruptcy relief to student loan borrowers.