Press Releases

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) today helped introduce the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act to allow students and families with undergraduate student debt to refinance their loans to the current interest rate of 3.76 percent.

“We should provide every student borrower the opportunity to refinance their loans. It’s unacceptable that Americans are currently able to refinance their car loans, mortgages and business loans, but cannot take advantage of lower interest rates on student loans,” DelBene said. “The rising cost of college is forcing millions of middle-class families deep into debt as they take out higher loan amounts to pay for tuition, fees, textbooks and housing. If we want students to succeed, we need to work toward solutions that make a college degree more affordable for all.”

The Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, introduced by Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), would allow two-year and four-year undergraduate student borrowers with high interest rates in private and public student loans to refinance to the current interest rate for Federal Stafford Loans.

Student loans account for $1.3 trillion of all consumer debt. Every year in Washington state, 56 percent of graduates from four-year universities leave school with student debt, and on average those students owe more than $23,000 upon graduation. An estimated 450,000 Washingtonians would benefit from student loan refinancing under the measure.

DelBene has also introduced the E-BOOK Act to lower college textbook costs and the Higher Education Loan Payments (HELP) for Students and Parents Act to make college more affordable by modernizing how the tax code treats employer contributions toward student loan repayment.

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