CABINET/EDUCATION/TRUMP PEOPLE/BESTY DEVOS: “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday [4-11-17] withdrew a series of policy memos issued by the Obama administration to strengthen consumer protections for student loan borrowers.
The Education Department is in the middle of issuing new contracts to student loan servicing companies that collect payments on behalf of the agency. These middlemen are responsible for placing borrowers in affordable repayment plans and keeping them from defaulting on their loans. But in the face of mounting consumer complaints over poor communication, mismanaged paperwork and delays in processing payments, the previous administration included contract requirements to shore up the quality of servicing. Companies complained that the demands would be expensive and unnecessarily time consuming.
‘This process has been subjected to a myriad of moving deadlines, changing requirements and a lack of consistent objectives,’ Devos said Tuesday, in a letter addressed to James W. Runcie, who heads the Federal Student Aid office at the department. ‘We must promptly address not only these shortcomings but also any other issues that may impede our ability to ensure borrowers do not experience deficiencies in service. This must be done with precision, timeliness and transparency.'”
-Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “DeVos dials back consumer protections for student loan borrowers,” The Washington Post online, April 11, 2017 4:30pm