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Betsy DeVos defends plan for offering only some debt relief to defrauded students

December 12, 2019

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos on Thursday defended her decision to move ahead with partial loan forgiveness for students defrauded by for-profit colleges, pushing back on criticism from Democrats over her approach.

The Department of Education this week restarted processing the more than 200,000 claims for debt cancellation that have built up under DeVos' tenure -- but the amount of relief will be based on borrowers' current incomes, rather than the total amount of debt.
"I know fraud when I see it, and these students were misled and cheated -- and the fact that some of them may be making money doesn't mean that they weren't defrauded," said Democratic Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, a former consumer protection lawyer.
Bonamici asked DeVos how she can reassure borrowers who filed claims that she's doing everything in her power to get relief.