Nine Tennessee lawmakers, including three Democratic lawmakers that supported the fiscal year 2010 budget resolution to reform the student loan programs last year, are urging Education Secretary Arne Duncan to support an immediate, temporary extension of the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loan Act (ECASLA). In a letter to Duncan, the lawmakers voice their support for legislation to extend ECASLA (H.R. 4103 and S. 2796) that was introduced by Rep. John Kline (R-MN) and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY).

"[W]e are deeply concerned about the very serious issue that may jeopardize access to higher education funding for thousands of students in the state of Tennessee and in the country," the lawmakers' letter states. "Without this action, there will be major and negative implications for millions of students and thousands of institutions of higher education for the upcoming academic year 2010-2011 who process their loans through Federal Family of Education Loans Program (FFELP)."

The Senators and Representatives argue that the ECASLA program enabled student loan demand to be met for the 2009-2010 academic year. They also note that ECASLA has earned $11.8 billion for the federal government. They urge quick action eliminate any student loan access uncertainty for the upcoming academic year.

"As student loan reform remains in pending status, colleges and universities across the country are getting ready to process their financial aid for the academic year 2010-2011," they write. "In fact there is only one month left before the loan requests begin to arrive to FFELP lenders participating in ECASLA."

They recognize that the Direct Loan program is a viable option for schools, but argue that thousands of schools are not prepared to process federal aid through the Common Origination System (COD).

"[College officials and financial aid professionals] are extremely concerned about their students and the funding availability in the upcoming academic year," the letter states. "They also feel the undue pressure to perform an expensive conversion to the Direct Loan program, prior to any legislation having been enacted, is unwarranted when the ECASLA program could easily be extended at no cost to taxpayers."

Posted 03/08/10 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.