From: Jessica Ranucci, Primary Negotiator for Consumer Advocates

To: U.S. Department of Education

Re: Proposed Regulatory Text Amendments Discussed at Today’s Session

Date: February 22, 2024

34 CFR PART 30—DEBT COLLECTION 

Subpart G— Waiver of Federal Student Loan Debts 

§ 30.91 Forgiveness Waiver due to likely impairment of borrower 

ability to repay or undue costs of collection. 

(a) The Secretary may waive up to the outstanding balance of a 

loan owed to the Department arising under the Federal Family 

Education Loan Program authorized under title IV, part B, of the 

HEA, the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program authorized 

under title IV, part D, of the HEA, the Federal Perkins Loan 

Program authorized under title IV, part E, of the HEA, and the 

Health Education Assistance Loan Program authorized by sections 

701–720 of the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 292–292o, 

whether or not such loan has been reduced to judgment, when the 

Secretary determines that a borrower has experienced or is 

experiencing hardship related to such a loan such that the 

hardship is likely to impair the borrower’s ability to fully 

repay the Federal government or the costs of enforcing the full

amount of the debt are not justified by the expected benefits of 

continued collection of the entire debt. 

(b) Factors that substantiate hardship. In determining whether a 

borrower meets the conditions described in paragraph (a) of this 

section, the Secretary may consider any indicators of hardship 

related to the borrower, or, for parent borrowers, the parent 

borrower or the student on whose behalf the parent borrowed,

including but not limited to--

(1) Household income; 

(2) Assets; 

(3) Type of loans and total debt balance owed for loans 

described in paragraph (a) of this section, including those not 

owed to the Department; 

(4) Current repayment status and other repayment history 

information; 

(5) Student loan total debt balances and required payments, 

relative to household income; 

(6) Total consumer debt balances and required payments, relative 

to household income; 

(7) Receipt of a Pell Grant and other information from the FAFSA 

form; 
(8) Sector and level of institution attended; 

(9) Typical student outcomes at the last any or all programs

attended; 

(10) Whether the borrower has completed any or all postsecondary 

certificate or degree programs for which they received title IV, 

HEA financial assistance;

(11) Age; 

(12) Disability; 

(13) Age of the borrower’s loan based upon first disbursement or 

the disbursement of loans repaid by a consolidation loan; 

(14) Receipt of means-tested public benefits; 

(15) High-cost burdens for essential expenses, such as 

healthcare, caretaking, and housing; 

(16) The extent to which hardship is likely to persist; and 

(17) Any other indicators of hardship identified by the 

Secretary. 

(c) Immediate relief for borrowers likely to default. The 

Secretary may consider any indicators of hardship related to the 

borrower, including but not limited to the factors described in 

paragraph (b) of this section to discharge waive all or part of 

the federally held student loans of borrowers who the Secretary 

determines based on data in the Secretary’s possession have 

experienced or are experiencing hardship such that their loans 

are at least 80 percentmore likely than not to be in default in 

the next two years after [INSERT EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE 

REGULATIONS] or would have been more likely than not to be in 

default in that time period if Fresh Start or other similar 

time-limited programs available to borrowers after March 2020

had not been available. 

(d) Process for additional relief. In exercising the authority 

described in paragraph (a) of this section, the Secretary may 

rely on data in the Secretary’s possession to provide relief 

without an application from the borrower or may rely on 

information acquired through an application, or both, to provide 

relief based on criteria demonstrating the conditions described 

in paragraph (a).