The Senate and House have started to conference the Higher Education Act reauthorization bill (S. 1642 and HR 4137). Last week, COHEAO sent a letter to Capitol Hill urging Members to include the reauthorization of the program in the Conference Report as well as the Perkins Loans Proposals included in H.R. 4137.

The House bill prohibits the Department from requiring the assignment of defaulted Perkins Loans except in cases where schools fail to knowingly maintain records or decide to withdraw from the program or decide not to service the loans. It also requires the Department to return Perkins funds collected from voluntarily assigned loans to the institution that assigned them within 180 days, less collection costs of up to 30 percent.

COHEAO strongly urges you to call and/or send letters to Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee and the House Education and Labor Committee and urge them to support the reauthorization of the Perkins Loan Program and to support the House position on the assignment of Perkins Loans.

Click HERE for a sample letter. Click HERE to see the COHEAO letter.

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