Friends,

I wanted to reach out and let you know about an exciting win we had in Congress this week – one that will free domestic violence survivors and divorced individuals from being forcibly linked to a former partner through their student loan debt. 

For many years, married couples could choose to consolidate their student loan debt under a program – but when Congress eliminated this program in 2006, it didn’t create a way to split the debt in the case of divorce or separation. This left many people – including survivors of domestic violence, those with unresponsive partners, and those suffering from economic abuse – liable for their partners’ debt. For many, this has been a crushing financial responsibility. That’s not right, and this week we achieved the first step towards changing it with the Senate passage of a bipartisan law I was proud to help champion.

This bill will create a process for folks all across the country to sever debt with a former spouse – freeing them from this economic burden. It will also enable borrowers to access student loan relief programs, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which they were previously ineligible for due to the specific conditions of joint consolidation loans. This is a commonsense fix – and that’s why it passed the Senate unanimously after we built a bipartisan coalition.

I’ve been working on this bill for a long time and I’m proud to see it through the Senate. I’m hoping it will quickly pass the House and get signed into law. If you want to read more about this, NPR wrote a story about the bill. If you’re interested in sharing the news about this, you can do so by sharing my posts on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Sincerely,