The 231-50-180 vote fell largely along party lines, with six Republicans endorsing a resolution to scrap the administration’s overhaul of a 1995 law known as “borrower defense to repayment.” The law gives the Education Department authority to cancel the federal debt of students whose colleges misled them about graduation or job placement rates to get them to enroll.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos spent two years trying to delay and then scuttle an Obama-era update of the law that lowered hurdles for students and shifted more of the cost of forgiveness onto schools. The Trump administration finalized its rewrite of the Obama rule in September, limiting the time borrowers have to apply for relief and requiring them to prove financial harm. The rule will take effect July 1. Continue reading.