Courtney: Trump Admin Policies are Driving Record Student Loan Defaults. The Big Ugly Bill will Aggravate the Issue.

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, during a House Education and Workforce Committee markup of H.R. 9609, a partisan bill that would codify the dismantling of the Department of Education's Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), a senior Member of the Committee, offered an amendment to the bill that would prevent core functions of FSA from being transferred to the Department of the Treasury until the Government Accountability Office releases a study on the Big Ugly Bill's (H.R. 1's) impacts on student loan limits and student loan repayment plans.

Under the policies of President Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, which include the dismantling of the Department of Education, student loan defaults have hit record highs in 2026. The Big Ugly Bill will aggravate this trend by capping the amount of federal student loans that undergraduate and graduate students are eligible for, shoving students into the private student loan market where interest rates are higher and the cost of borrowing is higher.

"When people are falling in default, their credit rating just totally tanks. The ability for people to move forward in life in terms of buying homes, starting businesses, just being able to pay the bills when their credit rating is absolutely devastated by a default," Courtney said. "It's clear that H.R. 1 is, amazingly, going to aggravate this trend."