A coalition of 89 organizations representing student borrowers is urging Congress to launch emergency oversight hearings into what they say is widespread student loan servicing failures. Amid the Trump administration's ongoing overhaul of the federal student loan system, the groups sent a letter to Congress Monday warning that millions of borrowers are facing "unprecedented levels of confusion, misinformation, servicing errors, and administrative failures" as the Department of Education implements major changes enacted through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Department of Education and its student loan servicers accountable.” The letter comes as millions of Americans are navigating significant changes to federal student loan repayment programs.
The Trump administration has been phasing out the Biden-era SAVE repayment plan and transitioning borrowers into new repayment options, a process that has generated some errors and delays. Student loan issues can have major financial consequences for borrowers, leading to more debt in the long term and credit score damage. The organizations are calling for Congress to convene an emergency hearing to investigate problems within the federal student loan system and hold the Education Department and loan servicers accountable.
They log in one morning and qualifying payments have disappeared. Or a borrower still in forbearance suddenly gets a past due warning. Now they aren't making a financial decision.
They're trying to figure out whether the government's own records are correct.” Newsweek reached out to the Department of Education for comment via email. The administration has defended the repayment overhaul, saying that the changes are intended to simplify a complicated repayment system and strengthen accountability on borrowers. We’re focused on fixing problems for students, not taking lectures from partisan advocates who stood by while those problems were created.” Among the groups that signed the letter are Protect Borrowers, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the NAACP and the United Auto Workers.
The organizations are asking leaders of major House and Senate committees responsible for education and financial services oversight to investigate the reported problems, but it’s unclear if any real change will take place. Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Dave Siminoff.
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