Sponsors (7)
The bill prioritizes reverting to clearer, pre-existing student-loan and institutional tax rules and restoring certain discharge pathways—trading off recent expanded borrower benefits and broader program eligibility, which shifts costs, uncertainty, and administrative burden onto some borrowers, institutions, and taxpayers.
Students and borrowers benefit from restoring prior statutory student-loan rules (including PSLF/repayment standards), producing clearer long-term program rules for administration and reducing legal/regulatory uncertainty for agencies.
Borrowers with valid borrower-defense claims and former students of closed schools regain stronger access to loan discharges, increasing the likelihood of debt relief for victims of predatory institutions and school closures.
Students and institutions get clearer, more consistent statutory rules defining which programs are eligible for federal student aid, reducing ambiguity for program approval and institutional compliance.
Millions of borrowers who relied on expanded PSLF pathways, temporary repayment pauses, forbearances, or other transitional benefits could lose credit toward forgiveness or see previously accrued relief vanish, increasing their loan burdens.
Borrowers, servicers, colleges, and agencies face increased administrative burden and confusion as prior regulatory references are reinstated, rules are reinterpreted, and eligibility is recalculated — producing implementation complexity and borrower uncertainty.
Narrowing the statutory definition of eligible programs could make some programs ineligible for federal student aid, reducing access to aid for affected students and causing enrollment and revenue losses for certain institutions.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Repeals multiple 2023 reconciliation changes to federal student loan, PSLF, and borrower‑defense rules; narrows program eligibility definitions; and sets the private college endowment excise tax at 1.4% after 2025.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Richard Blumenthal · Last progress March 26, 2026
Repeals multiple provisions of the 2023 reconciliation law that changed student loan repayment rules, Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), deferment/forbearance rules, borrower‑defense and closed‑school discharges, and related timing changes — instructing agencies to apply the law and regulations as if those repealed provisions had never been enacted. It also tightens which programs count for a specific Higher Education Act eligibility provision by introducing a defined term “covered educational program” with three enumerated program categories. Finally, it changes the private college endowment excise tax to a single fixed rate of 1.4% of net investment income for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025, replacing the prior tiered rate structure.