Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

11. Department of Education · Notable · Needs Congress

Strip the Secretary's power to cancel or forgive Title IV loans

Partially done

354 11. Department of Education

“Specifically, the new Administration should urge the Congress to amend the HEA to abrogate, or substantially reduce, the power of the Secretary to cancel, compromise, discharge, or forgive the principal balances of Title IV student loans, as well as to modify in any material way the repayment amounts or terms of Title IV student loans.”

What has happened

  1. Partially done

    Congress enacted the second half of this ask and left the first standing. Section 82001(b) of Public Law 119-21 adds HEA §455(d)(6)(B): for any loan made on or after July 1, 2026 the Secretary "may not ... authorize a borrower ... to repay such loan pursuant to a repayment plan that is not described in paragraph (7)(A)" or "carry out or modify a repayment plan that is not described in such paragraph" — an express statutory bar on modifying repayment amounts or terms, which is what the SAVE plan and its predecessors rested on. Sections 85001 and 85002 freeze the borrower-defense and closed-school discharge regulations at their July 1, 2020 text for loans originated before July 1, 2035, narrowing discharge discretion the same way. The power to cancel, compromise, discharge or forgive principal was not abrogated: the same Act directs the Secretary to cancel balances after 360 qualifying payments and extends Public Service Loan Forgiveness credit to the new plan.

  2. Not started

    The only bill aimed squarely at the rest of the ask, H.R. 937 (Protecting Taxpayers from Student Loan Bailouts Act), would bar the Secretary from issuing any economically significant Title IV rule or executive action that increases a subsidy cost. It was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce on 2025-02-04 and has had no further action: under §3b's Requires-Congress ladder a referred bill is `not-started`, and this event is recorded at that rung because it is the measure a reader would look for. The Status of the ask is carried by the 2025-07-04 enactment above.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The 2025-07-04 event is dated later than the 2025-02-04 one deliberately: the enactment is the event that moved the Status, and the bill is recorded after it as context. The site shows the latest event, which is the enactment.
  • On review, 2026-09-01, the 2025-02-04 event was corrected in place from partial to not started: its own note said the bill “moves nothing on the ladder”, and a bill that has only been referred to committee is not started. Date and Evidence unchanged; the ask’s Status is unaffected. The same review checked this item against #887 — both rest on P.L. 119-21, but on different sections (82001/85001-2 here, 82004/84001 and the repayment-plan architecture there) and each note reads its own Quote.
  • A search of the titles of the bills we keep and search for “student loan”, “loan forgiveness” and “loan cancellation” returns ~40 measures; none other than H.R. 937 would limit the Secretary’s cancellation or compromise authority, and none has left committee.
Action
repeal
Object
Secretary of Education's Title IV loan cancellation authority
ID
890