A package of bills aimed at tackling college costs and providing an alternative to President Biden’s student loan forgiveness proposals were introduced this week by a group of Senate Republicans, led by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The package is titled “Lowering Education Debt and Cost.”

The Senators called Biden’s forgiveness plan a scheme to transfer debt to taxpayers and warned that even if current student loan debt is cancelled, borrowing limits will rebound to $1.6 trillion in five years. Instead of the loan cancelation plan, the Senators offered a package of bills claiming to provide information for better educational decisions, and to simplify the financial aid process so that it can be navigated without confusion. 

Headlining the package is Cassidy’s College Transparency Act (S. 1349), a bipartisan proposal to establish a federal student unit record system to track and report college completion rates, earnings and other outcomes at the student level at all institutions of higher education. This bill has been in the works for many years and is Cassidy’s top higher education priority to expand available information about college costs. NAICU has long opposed the measure as not having enough privacy protections for student information.   

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) highlighted his bill, Understanding the True Cost of College (S. 528), which requires colleges and universities to use a standardized financial aid award letter, and standard terminology and definitions to provide better student consumer information on financial aid packages. This bill also has bipartisan support and has been developed over a few years although many in the higher education community believes the approach is too standardized to accommodate the many variances in institutional aid and packaging.

Bills aimed more directly at borrowing also were introduced. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) announced the Informed Student Borrower Act which requires enhanced entrance counseling for federal student loan borrowers, including requiring borrowers to make manual entries of how much they wish to borrow before disbursement. The bill also requires students to be informed of program level completion rates and expected post graduate income. 

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) introduced the Graduate Opportunity and Affordable Loans (GOAL) Act which would repeal the GradPLUS loan program and limit total federal borrowing for graduate school to $65,000 and for professional degrees at $130,000. Tuberville cited increased costs and decreased quality of education resulting in graduates starting their careers with too much debt to pursue life goals of home ownership and starting a family. 

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the Streamlining Accountability and Value in Education (SAVE) for Students Act to streamline the nine student loan repayment options to two – either a 10-year standard repayment plan or an income-driven repayment plan. It would also prohibit future undergraduate loans in programs where half of former students do not earn more than the median high school graduate earnings; and prohibit future graduate loans in programs where half of former students do not earn more than the median bachelor’s degree earnings.