Social Security

The Education Department (ED) is throwing out Trump-era guidance that blocked state consumer protection agencies from obtaining data about student debtors from student loan servicers.

It’s still early, but a few initial moves from Biden’s time in the White House indicate that he’s more ready to acknowledge that the country’s outstanding $1.7 trillion in student loan debt is the result of a broken and punishing system.

Americans may find this game familiar, although many of them play it in the other direction. Saddled with student loans, they dream about all the things the money could buy that they simply have to go without: a home of their own, a new car, a family.

The possibility of federal student loan forgiveness grabs all the headlines. But experts say no single policy — not even wiping the slate clean for millions of borrowers — solves the root causes of the nation’s $1.74 trillion student loan debt crisis.

A few hours before House Republicans voted overwhelmingly to promote Elise Stefanik to the party’s third-ranking post—that of chair of their caucus—that very same caucus, as well as Stefanik herself, voted on a straight party line against the Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act. The bill includes a provision that would protect military service members from predatory debt collection.

We spoke to two experts about what you really *need* to know about student debt, both as a political issue and as the personal issue hitting your bank account every month. Bonnie Latreille is the director of research and advocacy at the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) and has dedicated her career to protecting future and former students from predatory student loan practices.

We spend it, borrow it and save it. Now let’s talk about money and its many minefields, from credit cards to casinos, scammers to student loans.

Under President Biden, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has rescinded or scaled back a number of policies put in place by the Trump administration. And the bureau is staffing up in anticipation of taking a more active role in regulation and enforcement, as it did during the Obama administration.