Congressman Tim Walberg has been working on some changes to the federal government’s student loan program to reduce costs and help prevent young college students from going too deeply into debt.
As the House Committee on Education and Workforce worked to slash spending last week in preparation for President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” Walberg tells us members took a look at those loans. So, what are they proposing?
“We made it possible for students to receive Pell for short-term workforce Pell training, which is new,” Walberg said. “We also made it possible that a student’s loan would never — what they pay back would never be any more than what they signed on to.”
Walberg says that could be accomplished by addressing “interest issues.” He also tells us some caps on student loans are being proposed.
“The most that anybody could ever have as a loan, that would be capped for undergrad at $150,000, graduate school $200,000, and if you were in a professional school, graduate school training programs like for a medical doctor, then we would add to that another $50,000.”
Walberg says under the committee’s reforms, student loans could be paid back like mortgages, or the payments could be based on the graduate’s income. He says minimum payments would be $10 per month, and the loans would be designed to prevent any graduate from falling behind.
Walberg says the committee has “made a better student loan program” that’s far removed from the current model that sees some graduates owing more than they could ever possibly pay back.
