On Tuesday, June 10, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee released the text of its budget reconciliation bill, accompanied by a section-by-section summary and a one-pager. This release follows the...more
On April 21, the U.S. Department of Education announced that its Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) will resume collections on defaulted federal student loans starting Monday, May 5th. This decision ends a collections pause...more
Overview - On March 11, 2025, the Department of Education (ED or the Department) effectively fired a substantial portion of its employees, marking a significant step in what Secretary Linda McMahon has called the...more
On November 9, the DOE announced it is outlining a framework for how it will increase borrower support and ensure student loan servicers are accountable for errors. Richard Cordray, Federal Student Aid (FSA) Chief Operating...more
In a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Department of Education (ED) Analyst Brian Schelling, a coalition of AGs from twenty states and the District of Columbia submitted comments on ED’s proposed rulemaking...more
On April 19, one day before the release of a highly critical performance audit by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Department of Education (ED) announced a series of actions it is taking to “address[] historical...more
On January 20, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced new efforts to examine postsecondary schools’ institutional lending programs. Many colleges and universities offer in-house student loans,...more
Bankruptcies Trending Down in West Virginia, but for How Long? "Then from June 2020 to June 2021, in the heart of the pandemic, those numbers dropped even more." Why this is important: From 2016 to 2019, there was an...more
As we discussed in a prior LawFlash, US President Donald Trump signed four executive actions that purportedly extend various aid measures for individuals impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on August 8. One of...more
At the end of last week, the Department of Education announced that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has directed Federal Student Aid (FSA) to extend until December 31, 2020 the relief that was provided to federal student loan...more
• Recently released guidance from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) confirms that both private and public institutions of higher education must report litigation, settlements and other...more
Help! Do we have to report every pending lawsuit to the U.S. Department of Education by May 14? No. But, under newly effective regulations and guidance, (private and maybe public) institutions of higher education must...more
On Thursday, Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) Commissioner John Koskinen testified that the personal data of up to a 100,000 taxpayers could have been compromised as a result of criminal use of the Free Application for...more
Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Federal Student Aid (FSA) announced that the Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) on fafsa.gov and StudentLoans.gov will be unavailable until extra security protections could be added....more
The CFPB’s Student Loan Ombudsman has released a new “Mid-year update on student loan complaints” that highlights issues related to income-driven repayment plan (IDR) application issues. The update covers complaints...more
On February 8, 2016, the Obama Administration’s Department of Education announced the creation of a Student Aid Enforcement Unit to respond more quickly and efficiently to allegations of illegal actions by institutes of...more
On October 27, 2015, the United States Department of Education issued 433 pages of new regulations governing student loan programs under the Student Assistance General Provisions regulations promulgated under the Higher...more
A new Joint Statement issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Department of Education, and Department of the Treasury presents a framework to standardize student loan servicing practices across the various federal...more
A Presidential Memorandum titled the "Student Aid Bill of Rights," issued last week by President Obama, calls for the creation of a new complaint system for federal student loans. This proposal is likely to result in...more
As we reported last month, the Department of Education (DOE), with active CFPB participation, is currently engaged in a negotiated rulemaking process that is considering, among other things, revisions to the DOE’s Title IV’s...more