Fellow Illinoisan,

The for-profit college industry - which enrolls just nine percent of students but accounts for 33 percent of all federal student loan defaults - has defrauded hundreds of thousands of American students, leaving them with worthless degrees and mountains of student loan debt they may never be able to repay.

The American people overwhelmingly agree that these defrauded student borrowers should have their federal student loan debt discharged.  Federal law entitles student borrowers to have their federal student loans discharged if a college or university misled or defrauded them - through a process known as borrower defense. 

But billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has denied and delayed this relief at every turn.

DURBIN: WILL SENATORS STAND WITH BETSY DEVOS OR DEFRAUDED STUDENT BORROWERS?

During her tenure, Secretary DeVos has allowed more than 200,000 borrower defense applications to pile up at the Department of Education - nearly 11,000 of which are from Illinois.  She has not approved a single claim for more than one year. 

In August, Secretary DeVos released a new Borrower Defense regulation, which makes it nearly impossible for future defrauded student borrowers to attain relief by placing unreasonable burdens on borrowers to make and prove their claim.  The Department of Education estimates the new rule will eliminate nearly $11 billion in relief to which defrauded student borrowers are entitled under the law.  That cannot stand.

I introduced a resolution in the Senate to overturn the DeVos borrower defense rule.  I plan to bring it to the floor for a vote.  At that time, my Senate colleagues will have a choice: stand with defrauded student borrowers, or stand with Betsy DeVos.  It should be an easy decision to make.

I hope they’ll join me and the majority of Americans - on both sides of the aisle - who stand with defrauded student borrowers.

Sincerely, 

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)