Warren, Merkley, Whitehouse, Kaine Sound Alarm Over Trump Administration’s Plan to End Affordable Student Loan Repayment Program

Warren, Merkley, Whitehouse, Kaine Sound Alarm Over Trump Administration's Plan to End Affordable Student Loan Repayment Program

More than 7 million people are enrolled in SAVE plan

"It is imperative the Department take every action possible to ensure the 7 million borrowers currently enrolled in SAVE are provided with the information and resources necessary to avoid delinquency or default in order to avoid an even bigger default crisis. "

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) led their Senate colleagues in demanding answers from Trump Education Secretary Linda McMahon about the Trump Administration's proposal to eliminate affordable student loan repayment options for millions of Americans.

In addition to Warren, Merkley, Whitehouse, and Kaine, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Their letter follows the Trump Administration's Education Department (ED) reaching a proposed settlement with the State of Missouri to abandon the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan and its affordable payments in response to a lawsuit from Republican attorneys general from multiple states. The SAVE Plan was created by President Biden in 2023 to help student loan borrowers nationwide by creating a new income-driven repayment (IDR) plan-which links payments to a borrower's income and family size. In 2025, Republicans also passed a budget bill that requires the SAVE Plan and other IDR plans to be eliminated by July 2028, and this proposed settlement significantly speeds up the timeline.

"Pending court approval, the settlement would require ED to stop enrolling borrowers in SAVE, deny all pending SAVE applications from borrowers that may have been waiting years for a response, and move the more than 7 million borrowers currently enrolled in SAVE into other less affordable repayment plans," wrote the senators to Secretary McMahon.

"Unfortunately, ED's proposed settlement provides little direction or transparency for borrowers who will be forced into new repayment plans through no fault of their own," continued the senators. "Namely, the proposed settlement provides no information on what, if any, resources or guidance ED will provide to borrowers as they make these significant changes, or how much time borrowers will be provided to switch plans. The settlement also lacks clarity on the timeline for when these changes will be operationalized and when ED and other federal loan servicers will communicate these changes to borrowers. Troublingly, ED's own public communications have conflicting information on the timeline in which borrowers can expect to receive information from the Department, ranging from 'in the coming weeks' to "in the coming months.'"

The Senators also highlighted the harmful changes coming to student loan repayment following the passage of Republicans' budget reconciliation bill in 2025: "Without clear information or guidance, borrowers could be unknowingly placed in the standard repayment plan. Further, as a result of the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' ED is in the process of sunsetting ICR and PAYE while preparing to implement the Repayment Assistance Plan. These significant shifts in repayment options will only exacerbate confusion for borrowers, increasing the likelihood that borrowers will fall into the standard repayment option. This would result in significantly higher monthly payments for millions of borrowers. Many borrowers in SAVE would be unable to afford the high monthly payments in the standard plan, and as a result, these borrowers would likely fall into delinquency and default, which would have dire economic consequences for borrowers and their families."

The senators are demanding details on the proposed elimination of the SAVE plan by February 6, 2026.

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