2018 -- S 2982

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LC005951

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2018

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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

     Referred To: Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar

     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.

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LC005951

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