What The Senate Actually Passed: Student Loan Edition

Nearly a decade after the financial crisis of 2007-08, the Senate recently advanced the most significant overhaul of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into federal law by President Barack H. Obama on July 21, 2010. Specifically, on March 14, 2018, the Senate passed the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. Among the many alterations to existing law authorized by this latest foray into banking regulation, the bill effectuates three changes to the legal regime governing student financial aid.

First, lenders would no longer be able to declare that a student loan is in default when a co-signer dies or declares bankruptcy, effectively endorsing a policy followed by a handful of lenders. In a telling historical parallel, similar auto defaults have left borrowers with no choice but to repay the full balance or risk ruining their credit. Although this provision releases the cosigner, it does not force private