Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act
Latest action · May 15, 2019 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
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.
- IntroducedMay 15, 2019
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot 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-based 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, 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. All signed on May 15, 2019.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-CO | Cory Gardner | Original | May 15, 2019 |
| D-VA | Tim Kaine | Original | May 15, 2019 |
| R-SC | Tim Scott | Original | May 15, 2019 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- May 15, 2019Introduced in Senate
- May 15, 2019Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Related bills 3
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 2129 | Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act | Related bill | Apr 8, 2019 |
| HR 3101 | AID Act | Related bill | Jun 24, 2019 |
| HR 4674 | College Affordability Act | Related bill | Dec 28, 2020 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Education.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- May 15, 2019Introduced in Senate
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.