Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act
Latest action · Apr 8, 2019 Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedApr 8, 2019
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act
This bill modifies student loan counseling requirements applicable to institutions of higher education (IHEs).
Currently, an IHE must provide entrance counseling to a student who is a first-time federal student loan borrower. This bill replaces required entrance counseling with required annual financial counseling concerning information on the terms, conditions, and responsibilities of the grant or loan. Also, it expands the required recipients of such annual counseling to include, in addition to student borrowers, Pell Grant recipients and parent PLUS Loan borrowers.
In additional, the bill revises, expands, or establishes specific annual counseling information requirements for student borrowers, Pell Grant recipients, or parent PLUS Loan borrowers.
The bill revises and expands exit counseling information requirements for borrowers to include an outstanding loan balance summary, the anticipated monthly payments under standard and income-driven repayment plans, an explanation of the grace period preceding repayment, the option to pay accrued interest before it capitalizes, the right to request an annual credit report, a cautionary statement about third-party student debt relief companies, and loan servicer contact information.
It directs the Department of Education to maintain a consumer-tested online counseling tool that provides annual and exit counseling.
The Institute of Education Sciences must study the impact and effectiveness of exit counseling, annual counseling, and the online counseling tool.
Cosponsors 3
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Apr 8, 2019 to Mar 10, 2020, with 1 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-OR | Suzanne Bonamici | Original | Apr 8, 2019 |
| D-CA | Harley Rouda | Jul 10, 2019 | |
| R-IN | Jim Banks | Mar 10, 2020 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Apr 8, 2019Introduced in House
- Apr 8, 2019Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Related bills 2
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| S 1496 | Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act | Related bill | May 15, 2019 |
| HR 3101 | AID Act | Related bill | Jun 24, 2019 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Education.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Apr 8, 2019Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.