Author Archives: Allison Zieve

Texas judge strikes down federal student debt relief plan

As NPR reports, "President Biden's plan to erase federal student loan debts for tens of millions of borrowers hit a legal wall Thursday, when a U.S. District Court judge in Texas called it unlawful and vacated the debt relief program. The federal government immediately appealed the decision, which came just weeks before student loan payments […]

State-owned nursing home asks Supreme Court to limit patients’ right to sue

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Health & Hospital Corp. v. Talevski, which poses the question whether people who depend on initiatives that are funded in part by the federal government — such as Medicaid and programs that provide services for nutrition, housing and disabilities — can states when their rights are violated. […]

States lack standing to challenge the Dept of Education’s plan to relieve student debt

Yesterday evening, a federal court in Missouri dismissed a challenge by six states (Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina) to the Department of Education's plan to cancel $10,000 (or $20,000 for Pell grant recipients) of federal student-loan debt. The court held that the states lacked standing to bring the case. The district court […]

CFPB finds violations of federal law by student-loan servicers and university-owned lenders

Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a special edition of Supervisory Highlights on recent examination findings covering the practices of student loan servicers, and schools that lend to students directly. The exams found that these schools had improper blanket policies of withholding transcripts to force students to make payments. The CFPB also found that […]

Rapid Growth of “Buy Now, Pay Later” Lending

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a report today on the "Buy Now, Pay Later" industry. The report, Buy Now, Pay Later: Market trends and consumer impacts, finds that industry grew rapidly during the pandemic, and that borrowers may receive uneven disclosures and protections. The five firms surveyed in the report originated 180 million loans […]

CFPB and CMS address illegal nursing home debt collection practices

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has "released an Issue Spotlight highlighting some of the difficulties and experiences heard from caregivers about being pursued over friends’ or family members’ alleged debts from nursing home facilities. Based on the findings in the report, the CFPB and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have issued a joint […]