D’Amico: Protect Students, Not Student Loan Sharks

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. John D’Amico, D-Chicago, is calling on the Illinois General Assembly to protect students by overriding Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a new “Student Loan Bill of Rights” geared towards protecting students from predatory lending.

“Gov. Rauner has clearly shown he is more interested in protecting predatory lenders than our students,” D’Amico said. “My Student Loan Bill of Rights legislation creates more protections for students, so young people can focus more on their education and future.”

Rauner’s rejection of the D’Amico-backed Senate Bill 1351 would stop the legislation’s student loan protections from becoming law. The protections within D’Amico’s legislation include establishing a Student Loan Bill of Rights; requiring the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to license student loan vendors; and empowering the Illinois Attorney General’s office to assist students with loan servicing questions and to enforce provisions that stop student loan servicers from engaging in unfair business practices.

“Students leaving college should be lifted up by all the new opportunities that higher education creates, not weighed down by unconscionable debt,” D’Amico continued. “That is why I am fighting to create a Student Loan Bill of Rights by overriding our governor who cares too much about predatory lenders and too little about students.”