House fails to override Trump veto of bill blocking DeVos student loan rule

The House on Friday failed to override President Trump’s veto of bipartisan legislation that would have overturned new regulations from the Education Department to restrict access to federal student loan forgiveness.

The vote is a win for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Her agency’s new rule, slated to take effect Wednesday, rolls back Obama-era regulations that helped students who say they were cheated by dishonest for-profit colleges.

Under the new rules, borrowers will be unable to have their loans erased unless they can prove their income has been impacted by the colleges even if they can prove they were deceived.

Congress passed a measure to overturn the new regulation earlier this year. Trump vetoed the legislation in May, arguing it “sought to reimpose an Obama-era regulation that defined education fraud so broadly that it threatened to paralyze the nation’s system of higher education.” 

Critics of the rule argue it hinders a borrower’s ability to seek loan forgiveness from predatory institutions.

“If Secretary DeVos’s efforts to prioritize profit over education are allowed to stand, then the for-profit industry will continue to do what it always has: exploit veterans, student borrowers and those trying to better their lives and support their families by obtaining an education,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), head of the Financial Services Committee, said on the floor ahead of the vote.

Proponents of the rule argue the change protects colleges from “frivolous lawsuits” while protecting students’ rights.

“The first 20 years of the [1994] rule, there were 59 claims, then the Obama administration begins encouraging frivolous appeals and the appeals jumped to 300,000 and climbing,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said on the floor. 

“This shouldn’t come as a surprise — massive loan forgiveness has long been a Democrat objective and the Obama rule was a giant leap toward that goal, one that also ignored the high cost to taxpayers,” she added.