Merkley, Wyden, Bonamici, Lawmakers Urge Trump Administration to Immediately Address Largest Student Loan Default Crisis on Record

Washington, D.C. - Oregon's U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, along with Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), joined a group of their colleagues in pressing the Department of Education (ED) to immediately address the largest student loan default and delinquency crisis on record, which has been made worse by the Trump Administration's policies.

"(I)nstead of pursuing solutions that protect borrowers, the Trump administration has deflected blame, punted responsibility for the default crisis to another agency, and raised costs for borrowers at every turn. We urge you to provide meaningful support to borrowers," said the lawmakers.

A February 2026 analysis by The Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers revealed that close to 9 million student loan borrowers are now in default, up from 5 million last summer. 3.6 million borrowers defaulted during the first year of the Trump Administration alone. 75 percent of borrowers who moved from delinquency to default on a student loan under the Trump Administration had never previously defaulted.

"The Trump administration's actions have fueled this default and delinquency crisis," wrote the lawmakers, highlighting the Administration's decision to block borrowers from accessing lower student loan payments and reduced access to debt relief.

Making matters worse, millions of borrowers will soon face an increased risk of delinquency and default due to the Trump Administration's decision to end the affordable SAVE income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. Instead of helping those vulnerable borrowers, the Trump Administration will automatically enroll them in more expensive loan repayment plans if they do not apply for an IDR plan within 90 days.

The rise in delinquencies and defaults will have devastating economic effects and raise costs for American families. The Trump Administration has threatened to restart forcibly collecting wages, Social Security, and tax refunds for defaulted borrowers, meaning that more than $30 billion could be seized from Americans' incomes by the end of next year. Around 2 million borrowers saw their credit score drop by an average of 100 points over the course of 2025, which can restrict access to credit or loans that help them afford everything from housing to medical bills.

The lawmakers urged ED to immediately take the following steps to address the default cliff:

• Cancel student debt for qualified borrowers under existing debt cancellation programs, including IDR debt cancellation, Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) discharge, closed school discharge, borrower defense to repayment, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF);
• Adequately staff ED to conduct outreach to borrowers and oversight of servicers;
• Clear the more than 550,000 application backlog of income-driven repayment applications;
• Enroll all 7.5 million borrowers currently enrolled in SAVE in the lowest cost repayment plan available; and
• Continue the pause on forced collections, end the interagency agreement tasking the Treasury Department with default collections, and create an interest-free temporary default prevention forbearance.

The lawmakers requested that ED commit to clearing the backlog of applications for loan debt relief and create a new form of forbearance to support borrowers by June 22, 2026.

Merkley led the letter with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), U.S. Representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and André Carson (D-IN), which was signed by over 60 members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Full text of the letter can be found by clicking here.

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