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Congressman Joe Sestak to Headline COHEAO Mid-Year Conference
COHEAO is pleased to announce that Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA) will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Mid-Year Conference. Sestak is an influential Member serving on the House Education and Labor Committee who is considering a run for the United States Senate in 2010.
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COHEAO Submits Comments on TILA Regulations
(May 2009). The Federal Reserve Board has published new regulations about disclosures, certifications, and practices relating to private education loans under the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA).

According to the Federal Reserve Board, lenders will be required to disclose certain information about their loans, and federal loans that may be available on three specific occasions, with applications, at the time of the loan approval and at consummation of the loan. The HEOA changes to TILA require the student borrower to obtain a self-certification form from the educational institution, along with certain information about their costs of attendance and financial aid, and submit a signed copy to the lender. The proposed rules allow this form to be paper or electronic, including signatures, and would further allow the institution to transmit the form to the lender (rather than the student).
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COHEAO Submits Testimony for House Education and Labor Committee Hearing on Student Loans
(May 2009). Last week, the House Education and Labor Committees held two hearings directly related to the Obama administration's student loan proposals. Secretary Arne Duncan discussed the administration’s overall education agenda with the Committee on May 20, and a hearing specifically addressing student loan reform, "ncreasing Student Aid through Loan Reform," was on May 21. 2009.
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FTC Announces Three-Month Delay of Enforcement of ‘Red Flags’ Rule
(April 2009) On Thursday, April 30, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it will delay the enforcement of the new “Red Flags Rule” until August 1, 2009, to give creditors and financial institutions more time to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs. For entities that have a low risk of identity theft, such as businesses that know their customers personally, the Commission will soon release a template to help them comply with the law. Today’s announcement does not affect other federal agencies’ enforcement of the original November 1, 2008 compliance deadline for institutions subject to their oversight.
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Perkins Update
(April 2009). COHEAO is continuing to work in Washington on Perkins Loan issues, as well as other issues that affect COHEAO members. This memo is to follow up on the informational memorandum of April 3rd as well as last Friday’s Torch, which had additional information. Please be sure and check the Torch for additional updates as they happen.
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COHEAO Launches Facebook Page
(April 2009) COHEAO recently created and launched a page on Facebook. Facebook is a free-access social networking website that was first aimed at college –age students and has now grown into a networking outlet for students, businesses and worthy causes. The COHEAO page can be viewed by facebook users by searching for “COHEAO”. Included on the page are events, including the Mid-Year conference in Philadelphia as well as general information about COHEAO and the Perkins Loan Program. The page will be updated as necessary.
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House and Senate Pass Budget Resolutions, Staff to Begin Informal Conference Negotiations During Easter Recess
(April, 2009). On April 2, 2009, the House and Senate, on strong party line votes, adopted FY 2010 Budget resolutions. Though the bills differ modestly in spending authority, they both offer President Obama an endorsement of much of his spending and policy plan for the year.
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Information and Perspectives on Proposed Changes to the Perkins Loan Program
(April, 2009). As many of you are aware, the Obama Administration has proposed to create a new Perkins Loan Program. COHEAO would like to provide additional information and perspectives on the proposed changes to Perkins Loans and what the process is for any such changes.
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House and Senate Budget Committees Hold Markups
(March 25, 2009). The House and Senate began marking up the FY2010 budget proposals. Overall, the House and Senate versions of the budget are similar. Both would propose to spend less than the Obama administration in FY2010. For discretionary spending, the Senate budget would spend $525 billion, while the House would propose to spend $533 billion. According to the most recent estimate from the CBO, the Obama budget would result in $540 billion in spending in the next fiscal year. Perkins Loans are not specifically referenced, either the current program or the Administration’s new Perkins proposal. In other words, it will be up to the House and Senate education committees to decide what to do about the proposal at a later date.
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Obama Releases Budget Outline: Includes Modernized Perkins Loan Program
(February, 2009). President Obama released an outline of a budget that includes mention of the Perkins Loan Program. The budget outline says: “The Budget also makes campus-based, low-interest loans more widely available through a new modernized Perkins Loan program, overhauling the inefficient and inequitable current Perkins program.”
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FY09 Appropriations Bill Released
(January 2009). On February 23, Congressman Dave Obey (D-WI), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, made steps to finish the FY09 Appropriations. The Committee released the FY09 Omnibus Appropriations bill —a product of behind the scenes negotiations between the House, Senate and White House – which would combine nine annual appropriations bills left over from last year. According to Obey, the bill “works in harmony with the economic recovery package, making investments that address the country’s immediate needs while investing in our long term economic strength.”
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Senate Appropriations Committee supports $61 million Federal Capital Contribution for Perkins Loans
(January 2009).The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday included as part of its version of the massive economic stimulus bill $61 million as a Perkins Loan Capital Contribution. The Senate’s Committee Report description of the funding reads: “The Committee has also included $61,000,000 for Federal Perkins loans capital contributions. The Federal Perkins loan program supports student loan revolving funds built up with capital contributions to participating institutions.”
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ED Releases CCRAA Final Regulations
(October 2008) On Thursday, October 23, 2008, the Department of Education issued Final Regulations in the Federal Register for the “College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2008” (CCRAA), PL 110-84, for the FFEL, Direct Loan, and Perkins Loan programs.
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Economic Hardship Deferment
Congress eliminated the 20/220 rule from the HEA and replaced it with the new IBR plan, which the Department believes “will provide assistance to more borrowers with high levels of debt over a much longer period of limited earnings than the economic hardship deferment.”
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HEOA Changes
In addition to the changes necessary to implement provisions of the CCRAA, the final regulations also incorporate certain changes made to the Higher Education Act by the recent Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) (Pub. L. 110–315). All Department regulations for programs authorized under title IV of the HEA are subject to the negotiated rulemaking requirements and the Department is generally required to publish an NPRM and provide the public with an opportunity to comment on proposed regulations prior to issuing final regulations. However, under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the agency is not required to conduct “notice-and-comment rulemaking” when it is unnecessary or contrary to the public interest.
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