Biden's Education Department asked for feedback on its student-loan reform proposals. Over 4,000 people answered, sharing their struggles with debt.

• The Education Department asked for feedback on its list of proposals to reform the student-loan industry.
• After a 30-day public comment period, over 4,000 people responded.

President Joe Biden's Education Department asked for feedback on its proposals to reform the student-loan industry, and thousands of people answered.

In July, the department unveiled a list of regulatory proposals aimed at providing further relief to borrowers through reforming targeted loan forgiveness programs, like Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and preventing interest capitalization, which is when interest accrues and gets added on to a borrower's principal balance. Before moving toward finalization and implementation of the rules, the next step in the regulatory process was a period of public comment, which ran from July 12 to August 12.

In that period, the department's proposals received just over 4,000 responses, ranging from borrowers sharing their struggles with student debt to advocates critiquing, or supporting, the plans that were put forth.

One person who commented wrote that they "appreciate the proposed changes to student loans. However, I believe there needs to be total student loan forgiveness of $50k. At the very least give credit for all % paid and put it towards the principal balance." And another person noted that the "biggest problem with loans though is the compounding interest. You can pay long after 20-30 years and never touch the principal balance."

Advocacy group Student Defense also submitted a comment concerning debt relief for borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools, saying that the department "should add provisions to ease the path to holding owners and executives personally liable for losses to students and taxpayers."

Leading up to the public comment period, though, some Republican lawmakers criticized the proposals — and the 30-day timeframe the public had to respond. GOP Reps. Virginia Foxx and Richard Burr wrote in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona last week that they were "extremely disappointed" the department did not extend the public comment period, and urged him to withdraw the proposals and instead work with Congress on reforms.

"Rather than work with Congress, the Department... brazenly seeks to enact Democrats' wish list of policies through executive fiat," the lawmakers wrote, adding that it "simply does not have the authority to create a convoluted and costly framework that Congress did not authorize."

They specifically referenced the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program and the borrower defense to repayment, which forgives student debt for borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools, and said the department does not have the authority to restructure those programs. For reference, the department proposed reducing paperwork requirements to ease the burden of applying for relief to both programs, along with expanding employment eligibility for PSLF.

On the other hand, Democratic lawmakers lauded the department's efforts, calling them in a recent letter an "enormous step" for student-loan borrowers. But they urged for continued relief and an expansion of a PSLF waiver that allows prior ineligible payments to count toward forgiveness progress, but is expiring on October 31, 2022.

At this point, the department is set to move forward with finalizing its plans for implementation by July 2023 — but it also has some other news to act on before then. Student-loan payments are set to resume after August 31, and federal borrowers are not only waiting to learn if that pause will be extended — Biden is also set to announce broad student-loan forgiveness by then. Cardona said on Tuesday that borrowers should know "soon" of any upcoming relief, leaving many waiting for a decision with the payment restart just two weeks out.