On January 30, 2024, negotiators from the Fall 2023 Student Loan Debt Relief Negotiated Rulemaking sent a letter to the United States Department of Education asking the Department to convene a fourth negotiation session to discuss debt relief based on borrowers’ financial hardship.
“We are negotiators from the Student Loan Debt Relief negotiated rulemaking who were selected by the Department to represent constituencies including borrowers, schools, students, and government entities. We are proud of the work that we did over three sessions in October, November, and December 2023, including reaching consensus on certain proposals that have the potential to provide targeted and necessary debt relief to many struggling student loan borrowers.
“However, we remain concerned that we were unable to discuss any concrete proposal to provide debt relief for borrowers experiencing financial hardship. As the Department noted in advance of our negotiations, many borrowers ‘continue to experience hardship in ways that the current student loan system does not adequately address.'”
