| R 327 |
| 2018 -- S 2982 Enacted 06/20/2018 |
| S E N A T E R E S O L U T I O N |
| RESPECTFULLY REQUESTING THAT THE OFFICE OF THE POSTSECONDARY COMMISSIONER FORM A WORK GROUP TO CONDUCT A THOROUGH REVIEW INTO HOW RHODE ISLAND CAN PROTECT STUDENT LOAN BORROWERS |
| Introduced By: Senator Hanna M. Gallo |
| Date Introduced: June 20, 2018 |
| WHEREAS, Student loan debt in the United States totals approximately $1.3 trillion; and |
| WHEREAS, The Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program is a bank-based |
| federal loan program that is held by the United States Department of Education or guaranty |
| agencies; and |
| WHEREAS, Nearly 7 million people with $162 billion in FFEL loans have loans held by |
| guaranty agencies and almost half of the outstanding defaulted student debt is from the FFEL |
| program; and |
| WHEREAS, According to a report from the Consumer Federation of America, over one |
| million borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans in 2016, an increase of about fourteen |
| percent from 2015; and |
| WHEREAS, The United States Department of Education has removed protections, |
| including, but not limited to, barring debt collectors from charging high fees up to sixteen percent |
| of the principal and accrued interest on past-due loans, penalties for debt collectors' improper |
| handling of loan payments and requirements of debt collectors to provide high-quality customer |
| service to borrowers; and |
| WHEREAS, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has closed its Office of Students |
| and Young Consumers, and may shut the open database for consumer complaints; and |
| WHEREAS, Rhode Island should proactively find state solutions for student loan |
| borrowers because of these rollbacks of protections and oversight that such borrowers were |
| afforded by the federal government; now, therefore be it |
| RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations |
| hereby respectfully requests that the Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner form a work |
| group to conduct a thorough review into how Rhode Island can protect student loan borrowers |
| and to make recommendations on or before January 15, 2019, to the President of the Senate and |
| to the Speaker of the House of Representatives regarding student loan protections. Such |
| recommendations should consider the best agency to provide those protections, and the necessary |
| statutory and regulatory amendments. The work group should include the Treasurer's Office, the |
| Office of the Attorney General, the Division of Business Regulation, the Rhode Island Student |
| Loan Authority, private student loan providers, members of the Rhode Island General Assembly, |
| current and former students with student loan debt, and other key stakeholders; and be it further |
| RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to |
| transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to Peter F. Kilmartin, Attorney General; Seth |
| Magaziner, General Treasurer; Dr. Brenda Dann Messier, Commissioner of Postsecondary |
| Education; Timothy DelGiudice, Council on Postsecondary Education; Liz Tanner, Director of |
| the Department of Business Regulation and Charles E. Kelley, Executive Director of the Rhode |
| Island Student Loan Authority. |
| ======== |
| LC005951 |
| ======== |