S. 2043 · 114th Congress
Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act of 2015
Key: what the circles and colors mean
Each circle is a bill. The ring fills as it moves through Congress:
Under the number: the Yea · Nay count of its final (or latest) recorded vote. On a member's page, the small badge is how that member voted: Y Yea / Aye, N Nay / No, P Present, – Not voting.
Gold and violet are only for Yea and Nay; they never mean a party. A member's party is the letter on their photo.
Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 114th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.
R
GrassleySponsor1 cosponsor · 1 R
0 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.
This bill amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to expand lender disclosure requirements.
What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in Senate · Sep 16, 2015
Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act of 2015
This bill amends title IV (Student Assistance) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to expand lender disclosure requirements.
A lender must provide a statement to a Federal Family Education Loan or Direct Loan borrower during a period when loan payments are not required. Such statement must include the current loan balance, original principal loan amount, interest rate, total interest paid, aggregate payments, lender or servicer contact information, and accumulated interest amount. It must also explain the option to pay accrued interest before it capitalizes and suggest a payment amount based on interest charged.
Additionally, the legislation modifies loan counseling requirements for an institution of higher education (IHE) that participates in federal student aid programs.
Currently, an IHE must provide one-time entrance counseling to a student who is a first-time federal student loan borrower. This bill requires an IHE to provide pre-loan counseling to a student borrower of a federal student loan at or prior to the first disbursement of each new loan.
It revises and expands required elements of pre-loan counseling to include a borrower's estimated debt-to-income ratio at graduation, a statement to borrow the minimum necessary amount, a warning that high debt-to-income ratio makes repayment more difficult, options to reduce borrowing, and an explanation of the importance of on-time graduation.
Prior to certifying a Federal Direct Loan disbursement to a student, an IHE must ensure that such student manually enters the exact dollar amount of the loan.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov
About this bill and sources
Official title: Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act of 2015
Latest action (Sep 16, 2015): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S6702-6703)
Policy area: Education · Origin: Senate · Introduced: Sep 16, 2015
Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)
No recorded floor vote found.