Congressman Steven Horsford Votes to Protect Nevada's Students

Washington, D.C. — On Thursday, January 16, 2020, Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-04) voted to support Congressional Review Act (CRA) Resolution, H.J.Res. 76, which would overturn the U.S. Department of Education's (DOE) 2019 Borrower Defense rule that gutted essential protections for student borrowers and taxpayers.

The Congressional Review Act, enacted in 1996, gives Congress 60 legislative days to overturn a final rule, once it is submitted to Congress. This is House Democrats' first use of the Congressional Review Act to reverse a Trump Administration rule.

"Today, I joined my colleagues in standing up for America's students — those who have been lied to and preyed upon by for-profit colleges who are left with crushing debt, useless degrees and no job opportunities that they were initially promised," Congressman Horsford said. "Americans seeking higher education opportunities should not be penalized with unnecessary burdens by the Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos in seeking out relief. I'm proud today to stand up for America's students and to support my colleague in the Nevada delegation, Congresswoman Susie Lee, who brought this resolution to the floor."

Since taking office, Secretary DeVos has refused to implement the Borrower Defense rule—created by President Obama in 2016 following the collapse of Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute—which has left hundreds of thousands of defrauded borrowers waiting for relief.

First, the Department unlawfully attempted to prevent the Obama-era rule from going into effect. Then, after a federal court ordered Secretary DeVos to implement the rule, she still refused to provide defrauded borrowers the relief they desperately need. Instead of working to make defrauded students whole, the Department finalized a new Borrower Defense rule in August 2019 that forces future defrauded borrowers to navigate a burdensome process to get relief, severely restricts how much relief they can receive, and shifts the cost of providing debt relief from predatory schools to taxpayers.

Analysis of the new rule estimates that the share of eligible loan debt forgiven under the Borrower Defense rule will drop from 53 percent using the Obama-era standard to just 3 percent under the DeVos rule.