Should the U.S. Make Billions From Student Loans?
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), center, joined by other women of the Senate, holds a news conference on her bill, the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, which would allow people with outstanding student loan debt to refinance at the lower interest rates currently offered to new borrowers, on June 4, 2014, on Capitol Hill.
Photographer: J. Scott Applewhite/AP PhotoA group of Senate Democrats, led by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, urged the government to offer relief to distressed borrowers this week, even if that dampens the profit it makes from collecting on people with outstanding loans.
In a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan dated Wednesday, the six senators wrote, “It is not the job of the Department of Education to maximize profits for the government at the cost of squeezing students.” The letter noted that a recent Congressional Budget Office estimate indicates the federal government will bring in $110 billion from these loans in the next decade.