Today, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Minority Whip, introduced the Preventing Risky Operations from Threatening the Education and Career Trajectories of Students Act of 2025, also known as the PROTECT Students Act.
In response to introduction of this legislation for the 119th Congress, TICAS President Sameer Gadkaree released the following statement:
“The PROTECT Students Act represents a comprehensive effort to place into statute critical student and taxpayer protections, and we thank Senator Durbin for his leadership. Amid ongoing legislative and executive threats to such protections, the PROTECT Students Act represents a counterweight to efforts that would leave students—especially Black and Latino students, low-income students, and student veterans—more vulnerable to predatory actors and taxpayer-funded financial aid programs more at risk of waste, fraud, and abuse by high-cost, low-quality programs.
“Among its provisions, the PROTECT Students Act would put into statute:
- Gainful employment, borrower defense to repayment, and closed school discharge rules that protect students;
- Prohibitions on institutions forcing students to give up legal rights as a condition of enrollment, or using a loophole to provide incentive-based compensation to third-party recruiting firms;
- Provisions to ensure integrity of institutions and firms with which they enter contracts for student services;
- Oversight and enforcement, including investment in the enforcement unit of the Office of Federal Student Aid and establishment of a cross-agency For-Profit Education Oversight Coordination Committee;
- Financial value transparency framework to inform college choice processes, and other measures that would improve access to student and taxpayer information.
“Under the first Trump Administration, regulatory actions rescinded or rendered unworkable many baseline student and taxpayer protections, shielding fraudulent institutions from liability rather than targeted students from harm. Congress should move to pass the PROTECT Students Act and put needed protections into law.
“We urge additional Senators and Representatives to sponsor this legislation, and we look forward to working with Congressional offices to build support toward its enactment.”
