II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1970
To modify requirements relating to financial aid disclosures.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JUNE14, 2023
Mr. D
AINES(for himself, Mr. CASSIDY, Mrs. BLACKBURN, and Mrs. CAPITO)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To modify requirements relating to financial aid disclosures.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Informed Student Bor-4
rowing Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. ENTRANCE COUNSELING FINANCIAL AID DISCLO-6
SURES. 7
Section 485(l) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 8
(20 U.S.C. 1092(l)) is amended— 9
(1) in the subsection heading, by striking ‘‘E
N-10
TRANCE’’; 11
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(2) in paragraph (1)(A)— 1
(A) in the matter preceding clause (i), by 2
striking ‘‘a disbursement to a first-time bor-3
rower’’ and inserting ‘‘the first disbursement to 4
a borrower in each award year’’; and 5
(B) in the matter preceding subclause (I) 6
of paragraph clause (ii), by striking ‘‘may’’ and 7
inserting ‘‘shall’’; 8
(3) in paragraph (2)— 9
(A) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) 10
through (K) as subparagraphs (B) through (L); 11
(B) by inserting before subparagraph (B), 12
as so redesignated, the following: 13
‘‘(A) An explanation that the borrower will 14
need to affirmatively determine and manually 15
enter, in accordance with subsection (n), the 16
Federal loan amount that the borrower will bor-17
row (which may be equal to or less than the 18
Federal loan amount for which the borrower is 19
eligible) for each award year.’’; 20
(C) by striking subparagraph (G) and in-21
serting the following: 22
‘‘(G) Sample monthly repayment amounts, 23
under a standard repayment plan and under 24
the income-driven repayment plan that had the 25
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highest enrollment in the previous year for bor-1
rowers (excluding parent borrowers), based 2
on— 3
‘‘(i)(I) the median levels of indebted-4
ness, as appropriate, of— 5
‘‘(aa) undergraduate borrowers of 6
Federal Direct Stafford Loans or 7
Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loans 8
who were enrolled in the institution; 9
‘‘(bb) graduate borrowers of Fed-10
eral Direct Stafford Loans, Federal 11
Unsubsidized Stafford Loans, or Fed-12
eral Direct Plus Loans who were en-13
rolled in the institution; and 14
‘‘(cc) parent borrowers of Federal 15
Direct Plus Loans made on behalf of 16
dependent students who were enrolled 17
at the institution; 18
‘‘(II) the median cumulative indebted-19
ness of borrowers of loans described in 20
subclause (I) in the same program as the 21
borrower at the same institution; and 22
‘‘(ii) the median annual earnings for 23
individuals who attended the institution, as 24
described in subparagraph (N).’’; and 25
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(D) by adding at the end the following: 1
‘‘(M) A statement that the borrower does 2
not have to accept the full amount of loans for 3
which the borrower is eligible, and an expla-4
nation that loan eligibility calculations are de-5
termined based on a cost of attendance that 6
may include expenses such as housing, food, 7
and transportation. 8
‘‘(N) The most recent College Scorecard 9
information (or information from a similar suc-10
cessor website) that shows the median annual 11
earnings of students who received Federal stu-12
dent aid and who are no longer enrolled at the 13
institution and are working, at the time that is 14
10 years after the date of such students’ entry 15
to the institution— 16
‘‘(i) for individuals who were enrolled 17
in the institution; and 18
‘‘(ii) if available through the College 19
Scorecard (or similar successor website), 20
for individuals who were enrolled in the 21
borrower’s undergraduate or graduate pro-22
gram. 23
‘‘(O) The percentage of borrowers who at-24
tended the institution and have completed or 25
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are no longer enrolled that are in active repay-1
ment (as compared to all borrowers who at-2
tended the institution and have completed or 3
are no longer enrolled). 4
‘‘(P) For undergraduate borrowers, the 5
completion rate of the institution, as available 6
through the College Scorecard (or similar suc-7
cessor website), for the most recent year for 8
which data are available. 9
‘‘(Q) A statement that— 10
‘‘(i) the statistics provided under this 11
paragraph are averages and median values 12
based on past years; 13
‘‘(ii) the borrower’s repayment 14
amounts, median earnings, and likelihood 15
of completion may vary from such statis-16
tics; and 17
‘‘(iii) as appropriate, parent borrowers 18
should be aware that information about 19
the median earnings, completion rate, and 20
percentage of borrowers in active repay-21
ment is based on data that excludes parent 22
borrowers. 23
‘‘(R) A statement in writing and in a form 24
the borrower may keep, of the annual percent-25
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age rate applicable to the loan based on a 10 1
year standard repayment plan, taking into ac-2
count— 3
‘‘(i) the amount of the loan; 4
‘‘(ii) the stated interest rate of the 5
loan; 6
‘‘(iii) the standard term for a loan of 7
the same type; 8
‘‘(iv) any fees or additional costs asso-9
ciated with the loan; and 10
‘‘(v) any capitalization of interest on 11
the loan.’’; and 12
(4) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(3) I
NFORMATION FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF 14
EDUCATION.—The Secretary shall provide institu-15
tions with the data and statistics necessary to enable 16
institutions to carry out this subsection.’’. 17
SEC. 3. ANNUAL REQUIREMENT TO MANUALLY ENTER 18
LOAN AMOUNT. 19
Section 485 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 20
U.S.C. 1092), as amended by section 2, is further amend-21
ed by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(n) A
NNUALREQUIREMENTTOMANUALLYENTER 23
L
OANAMOUNT.— 24
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In addition to the other re-1
quirements of this section and in accordance with 2
paragraph (2), each eligible institution shall ensure 3
that, for each award year, each borrower enrolled in 4
the institution who receives a Federal Direct Loan 5
(other than a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan) 6
and each parent borrower who is borrowing a Fed-7
eral Direct PLUS Loan made on behalf of a student 8
who is enrolled in the institution, for such year, shall 9
manually enter, either in writing or through elec-10
tronic means, the exact dollar amount of Federal Di-11
rect Loan funding that such borrower desires to bor-12
row for such year. 13
‘‘(2) M
ETHOD.—The eligible institution shall 14
ensure that the borrower carries out the activity de-15
scribed in paragraph (1)— 16
‘‘(A) in the case of a student borrower, in 17
the course of the process used by the institution 18
for students to accept a student loan award; 19
‘‘(B) prior to the institution certifying a 20
Federal Direct Loan (other than a Federal Di-21
rect Consolidation Loan), including a Federal 22
Direct PLUS Loan made on behalf of a stu-23
dent, for disbursement to a borrower; and 24
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‘‘(C) in the case of a student borrower, 1
after ensuring that the student has completed 2
all of the counseling requirements under sub-3
section (l).’’. 4
SEC. 4. WORK STUDY. 5
Section 485 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 6
U.S.C. 1092), as amended by sections 2 and 3, is further 7
amended by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(n) W
ORKSTUDY.—If an institution provides a stu-9
dent or a prospective student with a financial aid award 10
notification that includes work study, the institution shall 11
ensure that the notification includes an explanation that 12
any work study funds are not directly awarded to the stu-13
dent or institution, and such amounts must be earned 14
through the student’s completion of work over time.’’. 15
Æ
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