Key Moments From Elizabeth Warren’s Blockbuster Hearing On Student Loans

Forbes

Adam S. Minsky

April 13, 2021

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) grilled the CEOs of two student loan servicing giants at a Senate hearing today on the student loan crisis.

Senator Warren, who chairs the Subcommittee on Economic Policy at the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, has been advocating for sweeping reforms to the student loan industry for over a decade. She has been a particularly fierce critic of Navient and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (also known as PHEAA, which operates FedLoan Servicing) — two of the nation’s largest student loan servicing companies.

Warren invited Navient CEO John Remondi and PHEAA CEO James Steeley to testify at the hearing. Warren sent Mr. Remondi a letter prior to the hearing asking him to explain Navient’s “history of allegations of abusive and misleading practices aimed at student loan borrowers,” allegations which Navient has denied. Other testifying witnesses included Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and several student loan and higher education academics and policy experts who argued for various approaches to tackling the student loan crisis, including widespread cancellation of student debt.

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