WASHINGTON, D.C., September 6, 2007—The following statement was released by Kevin Bruns, executive director of America’s Student Loan Providers, in response to the Conference Report on the College Cost Reduction and Access Act:
“For all the good the conference report will do, the millions of families who rely on federal student loans will pay dearly for it—in terms of higher loan costs, fewer choices, less service, less convenience and more defaults.
“There’s just no way that borrowers can escape the impact of an 80 percent cut in government support for the program.
“This bill punishes the industry. The cuts and nationwide auction are going to punish lenders right out of the program and force families into the government’s bureaucratic direct loan program. Intentional or not, the size of the federal government just got bigger.”
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America’s Student Loan Providers represents 87 of the nation’s leading private, nonprofit and state-based education and financial organizations that provide guaranteed student loans through the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program. By leveraging private financial markets and competing for the right to lend to students, ASLP members offer low-cost loans to millions of students and superior levels of service to most of the approximately 5,000 postsecondary institutions that participate in the FFEL program. More information is available at www.aslp.us or call 202.721.1190.