WASFAA Federal Relations Conference Call – March 19, 2015

Participants: Vicki Shipley, Scott Cline, Anafe Robinson and Tami Sato

Meeting started at 2:03 p.m.

Welcome, Review of September Meeting, To Do’s

  • Tami did not hear back from FRC members so thought most would be on call. She invited Beryl Schantz from CSU Sacramento will co-chair FRC next year. From previous minutes Tami did post the final talking points on the WASFAA list serve and received some kudos from members on the advocacy effort. Talking points were also sent to NASFAA with information on meeting times with education committee staff members.
  • Looks like the two FRC sessions on Appealing CDR and Program Reviews made it into the conference program. We pulled the Let’s Talk session because it was duplicative to the one Justin Draeger and Brett Lief were providing.

This and That…

  • ED’s idea to have two college-rating systems: one for consumers using raw outcome metrics and one for policy makers and researchers to measure accountability, did not go over well. A final version is expected in time for the 2015-16 AY.
  • The House subcommittee hearing, “Strengthening America’s Higher Education System” included speakers David Bergeron (CAP) and Michael Bennett (St. Petersburg College). The written testimonies are available from the link provided to the hearings. FAFSA simplification through PPY and better use of IRS DRT, year-round programs, TCPA, FAA ability to limit borrowing and require addition counseling were recommended to address Rep. Foxx’s goals to promote innovation, access and completion.
  • President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum, “A Student Aid Bill of Rights”, that reflected many of the recommendations of the NASFAA Servicing Task Force including stronger consumer protection for student loan borrowers, a centralized point of access for repayment account and payment information and simplification. He directed actions to DE.
  • A DCL (GEN-15-05) provided changes with the Unusual Enrollment History Flag which extends the review period from three to four years and has expanded from just Pell Grant recipients to Direct Loans 9Not consolidation or Parent PLUS)
  • New America released a report on why student loans are different. Amazed that report based only on 6 focus groups with 59 borrowers with debts between $10,000 to $60,000 and no graduate students. Students quoted said that if they have choice of making a car, rent or student loan payment the borrower doesn’t pay student loan because they can’t take back education but can take car or get kicked out of home. Some felt only negative of consequencefor not paying student loan was bad credit. Some surprised how interest accrued. Hopefully not representational of most student loan borrowers or we would have much bigger default rate.

Advocacy Meetings on the Hill

  • No one on the FRC call was at the Leadership Conference.
  • We provided advice to Lillian Simmons for her first hill visit and she attended the meeting with Bryce McKibben. She said he related that financial aid administrators are good for nitty gritty information but what they are really interested in are stories from students. I have asked her to write a WASFAA Newsletter article about her experience.

Negotiated Rulemaking

  • Members from FRC that participated in the recent Neg-Reg session in DC included Pat, Scott and Vicki. Scott stated they met for 2 days on March 14 and 15. Most of the non-federal participants were against adding yet another repayment program, the proposed PAYE2 that would be available to all students and have other changes from PAYE. The new program would have additional costs due to no cap on the monthly payment, government coverage of accrued interest for 3-years, and no ceiling on forgiven amount. High debt students would probably choose PAYE instead of the new program.
  • There was less discussion on SCRA which affects FFEL borrowers mostly. Important difference between using the word “must” instead of “may” in loan holders use of the DOD database to determine who qualifies for the 6% interest rate.
  • Negotiators chose five of 14 additional items: 1) easing the transition of borrowers from rehabilitation to new servicer; 2) a few technical changes that are already in statute including lowering the rehabilitation collection fees; 3) a big positive proposal was brought up by Pat and would allow low participation rate index appeals before sanctions are set in for institutions; 4) Change to allow treatment of lump sum payments from DoD to be in the same manner of those from Americorps and Peace Corps as qualifying payments for loan forgiveness programs; and 5) a plan to improve the number of PAYE borrowers who re-enroll in PAYE after the first year in a timely manner by having required PAYE renewal notifications to borrowers.
  • Issue papers on these topics will be released next week. (Update: Pat distributed the issue

Papers and Tami distributed them to FRC for additional comments or input.

  • Next round of negotiations will be March 31 to April 2nd.
  • Last round of negotiations will be the last week of April.

Unfinished/New business

  • Due to technical difficulties with Tami calling remotely, not much more could be discussed. Tami hoped to put together additional list serve messages and hoped that FRC members could submit WASFAA Newsletter articles for the April 22nd deadline date (advocacy meetings with staffers? NegReg experience?)
  • We will start work on the WASFAA FRC Year-End report.
  • We will be forming the 15-16 FRC with combination of returning and new committee members.

Last meeting for 14/15 FRC

  • This was the last meeting of the 14/15 FRC. Next meeting for 15/16 FRC will be after the WASFAA Annual Conference. Thanks to everyone for a good and productive year.