Congressional Group Urges House Education Committee to Preserve Aspects of FFELP
Thirty-one members of Congress are urging the House Education and Labor Committee to preserve certain aspects of the FFEL program when it marks up the 2010 Budget reconciliation bill, an action it is expected to undertake very shortly.
In letters to Chairman George Miller and Ranking Member John Kline, a group of moderate Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans expressed concern over the effects of an abrupt termination of the FFELP program. Citing possible job losses in the loan business as well as disruption of servicing and administration at over 4000 schools that don't currently participate in Direct Lending.
The group recommended that the education committee consider alternatives to ending the FFELP and explore the creation of a new private sector-based loan financing facility. The letter stated that they believed the Obama administration's goal of generating savings to be used towards increased grant aid could be achieved by modeling changes to the existing loans programs on the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA), which was approved by Congress twice last year with wide bipartisan support.
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