- California AG Rob Bonta issued a statement on April 20 applauding an announcement by the U.S. Department of Education detailing plans to address problems in its administration of federal student loan programs.
- In his statement, AG Bonta described the Department of Education’s announcement as a “step towards accountability.” He noted that as AG, he was committed to protecting California student loan borrowers, but that fundamental change in the administration of the program required action by the Department of Education. Bonta called for similar changes in his announcement of a multistate settlement against student loan servicer Navient in January.
- In describing its plans to remediate federal student loan programs, the Department of Education outlined a number of steps to be taken to provide relief to borrowers, with a focus on the use of loan forbearance programs. These include automatic adjustments and possible account review for borrowers inappropriately steered by servicers into forbearance, reviewing and restricting loan servicers’ use of forbearance programs, intensified oversight of servicers’ use of forbearance programs; review and revision of past income-driven repayment (IDR) payments for certain borrowers, and increased transparency and accuracy in counting IDR payments.