HIGHER ED Act

Bill: 116-hr-3102
Sponsor: Rep. DeFazio, Peter A. [D-OR-4]
Introduced: 2019-06-05 in the House
Policy area: Education
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Administrative remedies
Bankruptcy
Congressional oversight
Consumer affairs
Department of Education
Education programs funding
Employee benefits and pensions
First responders and emergency personnel
Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Government information and archives
Government lending and loan guarantees
Government studies and investigations
Government trust funds
Health personnel
Higher education
Income tax deductions
Income tax exclusion
Interest, dividends, interest rates
Law enforcement officers
Lawyers and legal services
Military personnel and dependents
Public contracts and procurement
Social work, volunteer service, charitable organizations
Student aid and college costs
Tax administration and collection, taxpayers
Teaching, teachers, curricula
Temporary and part-time employment
Wages and earnings

Summary:
action_date: 2019-06-05
text: 

Helping Individuals Get a Higher Education while Reducing Education Debt Act or the HIGHER ED Act

 
This bill makes various changes to student loan forgiveness and loan repayment programs.
 
First, the bill authorizes graduate and professional students to receive subsidized Stafford Loans. These students have been ineligible to receive subsidized Stafford Loans since July 1, 2012.
 
Next, the bill allows student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy proceedings. 
 
The bill also establishes refinancing programs for student loans. It allows certain borrowers to refinance their federal student loans down to lower interest rates, and it creates the Federal Direct Refinanced Private Loan to allow certain borrowers to refinance their private student loans.
 
Additionally, the bill revises the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, such as by (1) allowing certain part-time faculty to participate in the PSLF program; (2) allowing borrowers to receive, and retroactively applying, loan forgiveness on half of their total loans after satisfying 60 qualifying monthly payments; (3) revising the process for certification of employment; and (4) requiring the Department of Education (ED) to establish a dispute resolution process.
 
Further, the bill revises federal student loan repayment programs, including by (1) replacing existing student loan repayment plans with one income-based repayment plan and one standard 10-year repayment plan, and (2) allowing existing borrowers to lower their payments by switching to these new plans. It also establishes a process for ED to enroll a delinquent borrower in a new repayment plan.
 
The bill also requires ED to provide certain notifications to borrowers.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2019-06-28
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law.
action_date: 2019-06-05
text: Referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2019-06-05
text: Referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2019-06-05
text: Referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2019-06-05
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2019-06-05
text: Introduced in House