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This week on "Off the Cuff," Allie, Jill, and David discuss some congressional activity on student loan reform and field questions surrounding Operation "Fresh Start" as well as some frameworks that financial aid officers can follow. Hugh then shares recent news from the White House and ED related to the Biden administration’s debt cancellation plan and provides additional details on how student loan reform legislation could be impacted by the upcoming midterm elections.

Federal Student Aid (FSA) on Wednesday released updated quarterly data on its FSA Data Center with information about student aid programs from June 30, 2022. Notably, as of June 30, approximately 43 million borrowers have about $1.62 trillion in outstanding loans, which is a $26 billion increase in the outstanding loan balance since last year, and no change in the number of borrowers. Additionally, over 25 million Direct Loan recipients, with over $1 trillion in outstanding loans, are in forbearance status, and over 99% of these balances are in the special CARES Act forbearance, according to FSA. Read more of the data here. 

The NASFAA website, www.nasfaa.org, will be unavailable starting at 4:00 p.m. ET today, September 23, for scheduled maintenance. The outage is expected to last approximately three hours; the site will be fully restored when complete this evening. This maintenance window will also impact other NASFAA entities, including AskRegs, the Compliance Engine, and Testing Center. Thank you for your patience while NASFAA works to maintain our online resources.

Please join us in congratulating Marguerite Wilder, formerly the assistant director of financial aid at Morris College, who retired in June after 43 years of working in financial aid; Shannon Muraco, FAAC®, who was promoted from senior accountant to audit supervisor at McClintock & Associates; Andrew Hammontree, FAAC®, who was promoted from director of financial aid to director of student administrative services at Francis Tuttle Technology Center; and Roxana Zeledon, who was promoted from senior financial aid counselor to associate director of financial aid at Middlesex Community College. Celebrate your own career developments by completing the "Movers and Shakers" form to share the news with your colleagues.

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