James Kvaal, undersecretary of education, and Richard Cordray, chief operating officer for the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) testified this week about the Biden Administration’s proposed student loan debt forgiveness program during a  House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development oversight hearing. As with previous hearings, the session was intensely partisan.  

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) opened the hearing citing all the ways the administration’s recent student loan actions are an “illegal scheme” to give billions of dollars to students who were encouraged to go to college and take out debt in an almost predatory way, while colleges increased tuition and for-profit institutions are held to higher standards.  

In her opening remarks, Ranking Member Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) countered calling out the hypocrisy of the Republicans on the committee for their support of tax cuts for the wealthy, bailouts for banks, the auto industry and PPP loans, but not hardworking students. She went on to talk about the decline of the purchasing power of the Pell Grant and the need to fix student loan interest capitalization while highlighting her bill the LOAN Act. 

Kvaal’s testimony focused on the Department’s “efforts to address the problem of student debt, remedy the economic damage that student loans cause to families and communities, and prevent a future student debt crisis.” He outlined the Department’s proposals and the use of the HEROES Act of 2003 as the legal basis for the loan forgiveness plan.

Cordray’s testimony focused on the status of the FSA’s implementation of legislation passed by Congress, specifically the FUTURE Act and FAFSA Simplification. 

Throughout the hearing generally, Republicans peppered the witnesses with rapid-fire questions, as if they were in court, to address their concerns about the student loan forgiveness proposal as being unfair to taxpayers who didn’t go to college, and their concerns about the recent proposed regulations demonizing the for-profit college industry. 

Democrats generally lobbed open ended questions to the witnesses to let them explain what they see as the positive aspects of loan forgiveness targeted at low-income students, fixing the interest capitalization problems, and the highlighting the Department’s request for increasing the Pell Grant maximum award and providing free community college so that future students don’t end up with the debt situation facing current students. 

The hearing adjourned as the House came into session to vote on H.J.Res. 45 to repeal the student loan debt forgiveness proposal.