I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5458 
To amend the Truth in Lending Act and the Higher Education Act of 
1965 to require additional disclosures and protections for students and 
cosigners with respect to student loans, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 28, 2010 
Mr. ADLER of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. CUMMINGS, and 
Mr. ROTHMAN of New Jersey) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the 
Committee on Education and Labor, for a period to be subsequently de-
termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Truth in Lending Act and the Higher Edu-
cation Act of 1965 to require additional disclosures and 
protections for students and cosigners with respect to 
student loans, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Christopher Bryski Student Loan Protection Act’’ and 
‘‘Christopher’s Law’’. 
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(b) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
(1) There is no requirement for Federal or pri-
vate education lenders to provide information with 
respect to, and discuss the benefit of, creating an 
advance directive (such as durable power of attor-
ney, living will, etc.) for financial, legal, and medical 
decisionmaking in accordance with State law to be 
used in the event of the death, incapacitation, or dis-
ability of the student or such cosigner (if any). 
(2) In harsh contrast to existing comprehensive 
policies of the Secretary of Education, no require-
ment exists for private education lenders to provide 
information with respect to, and discuss the benefit 
of, credit insurance in connection with private edu-
cation loans that would protect the signer, and any 
such cosigner, in the event of their death, incapaci-
tation, or disability. 
(3) No requirement exists for private education 
lenders’ master promissory notes to include the same 
clear and concise wording in regards to the respon-
sible party in the event the signer or cosigner be-
comes disabled, incapacitated, or dies. A clear and 
concise definition would provide standard terms and 
conditions within private education lenders’ master 
promissory notes with respect to signer and cosigner 
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obligations. Not requiring clear and concise obliga-
tions allows for a very unclear delineation of respon-
sibility on the part of the private education lender, 
which is a great example of the freedom large pri-
vate education lenders currently have. 
(4) No standard forms exist for defining dis-
ability, incapacity or death of a private education 
loan signer, or cosigner. 
(5) No requirement exists for eligible lending 
institutions, as defined with the Higher Education 
Act of 1965, to disclose to the borrower, information 
on the conditions required to discharge the loan due 
to the disability, incapacity or death of the signer or 
cosigner (if any). 
(6) Congress modeled the definition of disability 
in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 on 
the definition in section 504 of the Rehabilitation 
Act of 1973, which, through the time of the enact-
ment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 
had been construed broadly to encompass both ac-
tual and perceived limitations, and limitations im-
posed by society. 
(7) Of the 1,400,000 people who sustain a trau-
matic brain injury each year in the United States, 
50,000 die; 235,000 are hospitalized; and 1,100,000 
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are treated and released from an emergency depart-
ment. 
(8) It is estimated that the annual incidence of 
spinal cord injury, not including those who die at the 
scene of the accident, is approximately 40 cases per 
1,000,000 people in the United States or approxi-
mately 12,000 new cases each year. Since there have 
not been any overall incidence studies of spinal cord 
injuries in the United States since the 1970s, it is 
not known if incidence has changed in recent years. 
(9) The number of disabled veterans has 
jumped by 25 percent since 2001 to 2,900,000. To-
day’s veterans, disabled or not, number nearly 
24,000,000. 
(10) In the 2007–2008 academic year, 13 per-
cent of students attending a 4-year public school, 
and 26.2 percent of students attending a 4-year pri-
vate school, borrowed monies from private loan pro-
viders. 
(11) According to Sallie Mae, in 2009, the 
number of cosigned private educational loans in-
creased from 66 percent to 84 percent of all private 
educational loans. 
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