By Owen Daugherty, NASFAA Staff Reporter
The ranking members of the House and Senate education committees penned a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona asking the Department of Education (ED) to provide clarity on the statutory basis for the recent temporary waivers afforded to borrowers in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) followed up on an October letter asking the department to detail its rationale for implementing significant changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.
“When announcing these changes, the Department claimed a liberal reading of a statute to find the executive authority to move forward. In light of this overtly political reading of the statute, we requested the production of various documents to understand the Department’s rationale for its decision and the supposed authority to change unilaterally statutory requirements prescribed by Congress,” the letter states.
When announcing the temporary waiver issued in October, ED pointed to its emergency authority made possible due to the coronavirus pandemic to make changes to the PSLF program and how it operates for those working in the public service sector.
The letter from Foxx and Burr includes a list of questions the lawmakers want answered by the department in writing no later than two weeks from January 6, the day the letter was sent to ED.
Publication Date: 1/7/2022
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