Use of the HEROES Act of 2003 to Cancel
the Principal Amounts of Student Loans
The Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-76,
117 Stat. 904, grants the Secretary of Education authority to reduce or eliminate the
obligation to repay the principal balance of federal student loan debt, including on a
class-wide basis in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, provided all other requirements of the statute are satisfied
MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE GENERAL COUNSEL
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
The Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of
2003, Pub. L. No. 108-76, 117 Stat. 904 (2003) (codified at 20 U.S.C.
§§ 1098aa–1098ee) (“HEROES Act of 2003,” or “HEROES Act”),
vests the Secretary of Education (“Secretary”) with expansive authority
to alleviate the hardship that federal student loan recipients may suffer
as a result of national emergencies.
The Act provides that the Secretary
may “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to”
federal student loan programs if the Secretary “deems” such actions
“necessary to ensure that” certain statutory objectives are achieved. 20
U.S.C. § 1098bb(a)(1)–(2).
One of those objectives is to ensure that
“recipients of student financial assistance . . . are not placed in a worse
position financially in relation to that financial assistance because of” a
national emergency. Id. § 1098bb(a)(2)(A). In 2020, the Secretary invoked this authority in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to suspend
the repayment obligation and to waive interest payments on student loans
for every borrower in the United States with a loan held by the federal
government. See Federal Student Aid Programs, 85 Fed. Reg. 79,856,
79,862 (Dec. 11, 2020).
Prior Secretaries have exercised the same authority to categorically waive statutory and regulatory obligations for borrowers residing or working in a disaster area in connection with a national
emergency and for borrowers who suffered economic hardship as a result
of a national emergency. See, e.g., Federal Student Aid Programs, 77 Fed.
Reg. 59,311, 59,314 (Sept. 27, 2012); Federal Student Aid Programs, 68
Fed. Reg. 69,312, 69,313–14 (Dec. 12, 2003).
No comments:
Post a Comment