Chairwoman Foxx’s Higher Education Proposal Falls Short on Student Protections, College Affordability

In response to House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx’s release of the College Cost Reduction Act (H.R. 6951), Sameer Gadkaree, President of The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), issued the following statement:   

“Chairwoman Virginia Foxx’s College Cost Reduction Act (H.R. 6951) would increase the burden of student debt for millions of students and place many at significant risk of falling victim to low-quality college programs.  

“At present, this bill would turn back the clock on critical gains for students and taxpayer protections made over recent years. It would take away the baseline protection against high-cost, low-quality programs provided by the recently completed gainful employment rule, deny financial value transparency to prospective college students considering enrollment, and undo bipartisan action that closed the 90-10 loophole to protect veterans from well-documented predatory recruitment by low-quality programs seeking to profit from GI bill benefits. This legislation would harm students who have been defrauded or experienced sudden college closures by making it more difficult for them to get relief from the Department of Education. 

“The bill would also make student loan repayment significantly more expensive for current and future borrowers by increasing monthly payments — likely driving more borrowers into delinquency and default — while removing existing safeguards that protect borrowers from carrying debt for more than 25 years. This could mean that some borrowers would stay in debt for the rest of their lives.  

“These harmful provisions overshadow otherwise worthwhile proposals that we agree would improve our higher education system: codifying critical investments in the Postsecondary Student Success Grant program, improving consumer information about college costs, and making common-sense technical fixes to the student loan repayment system — including fully eliminating interest capitalization. 

“We urge lawmakers to maintain a focus on college affordability, continue to reduce the burden of student debt, and increase protections for students and taxpayers from waste, fraud, and abuse.”