WASHINGTON — Today, the House adopted Rep. Dean's amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which would provide immediate relief to millions of private student loan borrowers including thousands of service members and veterans. The amendment would provide much needed assistance to roughly 4.5 million private student loan borrowers by providing up to $10,000 in immediate assistance to pay down the student loan.
“Private student loan borrowers are particularly vulnerable, especially because they were unable to access the brief reprieve that federal loan borrowers accessed from the CARES Act.” Rep. Dean said. “This left roughly 6 million student loan borrowers with payments during an unprecedented health and economic crisis.”
COVID-19 has only exacerbated this problem -- prior to the pandemic, 1 in 7 student loan borrowers were more than 90 days delinquent.
This amendment would also require private student loan servicers to modify the loan to lower the monthly payment by re-amortizing the loan and/or lowering the interest when borrower payments resume. It would also rectify the inequality created for private student loan borrowers. The amendment addresses the disproportionate impact on veterans – who take out an average of $8,000 in private student loan debt to attend for-profit school each year – and for the estimated 200,000 service members who collectively owe billions in student loan debt.
