Chair DeLauro Applauds Education Department Approval of $415 Million in Borrower Defense Claims

Statement

House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) released the following statement applauding the U.S. Department of Education (Department) for approving $415 million in borrower defense claims for more than 15,000 borrowers:

"Predatory, for-profit colleges account for eight percent of students in postsecondary education but nearly one-third of defaults. Predatory institutions mislead students into taking out loans, overpromise on future earnings, and scam taxpayers and students out of millions of dollars. We have an obligation to protect student borrowers and hold predatory institutions accountable. I applaud Secretary Miguel Cardona and the Department of Education for taking this obligation seriously and for finally providing relief to students that were defrauded and victimized by schools like DeVry University and ITT Technical Institute.

"I urge the Department to continue to swiftly advance rulemaking to restore a formal borrower defense process that provides relief and holds unscrupulous for-profits accountable for the damage they've done to student borrowers. I look forward to continuing to work with Secretary Cardona and the Biden Administration to improve borrower defense regulations and increase protections for students and taxpayers."

As Chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, DeLauro has a long history of working to protect students from abusive lending practices. In March 2019, DeLauro led an appropriations oversight hearing on predatory for-profit colleges. In October 2021, DeLauro urged Cardona to establish a stronger process for recouping funds from predatory colleges. The Department later strengthened its proposed process.

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