November 17, 2025

Warren, Sanders, Pressley, Over 40 Lawmakers Urge Trump Administration to End Plans to Sell Federal Student Loan Portfolio

Bicameral letter warns that “sale would be a giveaway to wealthy insiders at the expense of working-class borrowers and taxpayers.”

“Time and again, the Trump Administration has put the interests of well-connected, wealthy insiders ahead of working families.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, along with Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), led 41 of their colleagues in a letter urging Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to immediately end any plans to sell or transfer the federal student loan portfolio to the private market.

“Let’s be clear: This sale would be a giveaway to wealthy insiders at the expense of working-class borrowers and taxpayers,” wrote the lawmakers. “It threatens the loss of borrowers’ legally guaranteed protections, and the sale would likely be illegal if the debt is sold at a loss for taxpayers.”

According to a report last month, the Trump Administration is exploring options to sell the federal government’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to financial firms and other private companies.

This move could illegally strip student loan borrowers of key protections, including income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), disability and death discharges, and relief for those defrauded by predatory schools.

Such a sale would likely be illegal as well if the portfolio were sold at a loss. In 2019, the Trump Administration explored selling the student loan portfolio but abandoned the idea after consultants determined that the portfolio was “worth far less than government accountants had projected.”

Additionally, the sale of federal loans would be a massive giveaway to private lenders that have been shown to exploit private borrowers. Though private loans only account for 8% of student debt, they account for 40% of student loan-related complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“The Trump Administration should immediately stop any plans to sell or transfer responsibility of the student debt portfolio to the private, often predatory, market,” the lawmakers concluded. “The Department of Education’s role in providing financial aid to America’s students is clear, and the Department should not take any action that would enrich the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of working-class borrowers and taxpayers.”

The lawmakers requested more information as to the potential privatization of the federal student loan portfolio by December 1, 2025.

Senator Warren has led the fight to make our higher education system more affordable, cancel student loan debt, and hold student loan servicers accountable for incompetence and malfeasance. She launched the Save Our Schools campaign in a coordinated effort to fight back against President Trump’s attempts to abolish the Department of Education:

  • On November 10, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in a letter urging the Trump administration to use the IRS’s existing legal authorities to stop the looming “tax bomb” facing borrowers who obtain income-driven repayment (IDR) discharges of their student loan debt.

  • On October 15, 2025, Senator Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) led 70 members of Congress in a letter calling on the Trump administration to address the ongoing and unprecedented wave of student loan delinquencies and defaults, which threatens the financial stability of millions of people and could have disastrous effects on the American economy.

  • On September 19, 2025, following a push by Senator Warren and nine other senators, the Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education agreed to open an investigation into DOGE’s infiltration of internal systems, including the scope of its access to sensitive student loan borrower information and its impact on borrowers’ rights and privacy.

  • On August 26, 2025, Senator Warren led colleagues in sending a follow-up letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon condemning the Department of Education for deliberately hiding the “Submit a Complaint” button on the Office of Federal Student Aid’s website, firing employees responsible for providing customer service to borrowers and families, and misleading Congress about the scope of these firings.

  • On August 7, 2025, Senator Warren publicly released Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s response to the senator’s 60+ questions and pressed for additional information. Senator Warren announced that she would refer certain matters where the Department has proved uncooperative to the Government Accountability Office and the Education Department’s Inspector General.

  • On August 4, 2025, Senator Warren led eight Senators in pressing major private student loan lenders on their plans to serve the incoming surge of borrowers who will be pushed to the industry because of Republicans’ recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

  • On July 17, 2025, Senator Warren released a new 23-page report, “Education At Risk: Frontline Impacts of Trump’s War on Students,” highlighting warnings from 11 major national education and civil rights organizations on the impact of the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the Department of Education (ED), slashing support to millions of American students, primary and secondary school teachers, administrators, parents, and student loan borrowers.

  • On July 15, 2025, Senators Warren and Sanders, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, urging her to reverse the interest hike on student loan borrowers in the SAVE forbearance.

  • On July 14, 2025, Senator Warren joined a letter to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, and Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, demanding that the Department of Education stop blocking nearly $7 billion in funds for K-12 schools, including for afterschool programs.

  • On July 3, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in submitting an amicus brief for NAACP v. US, arguing to the United States District Court District of Maryland that President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education violate separation of powers and lack constitutional authority.

  • On June 10, 2025, Senator Warren met with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and delivered over 1,000 letters to McMahon that the senator had received from people in all 50 states who were worried about the Secretary’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.

  • On June 9, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in pushing the Acting Inspector General of the Department of Education to open an investigation into new information obtained by her office, revealing that DOGE may have gained access to two FSA internal systems, in addition to sensitive borrower data.

  • On May 20, 2025, Senator Warren and 27 other senators pushed for full funding for the Office of Federal Student Aid.

  • On May 14, 2025, Senator Warren led a Senate forum entitled “Stealing the American Dream: How Trump and Republicans Are Raising Education Costs for Families,” highlighting the consequences of Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education and President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” for working- and middle-class students and borrowers.

  • On May 13, 2025, Senator Warren agreed to meet with Education Secretary Linda McMahon and promised to bring questions and stories from Americans across the country to highlight how the Trump administration’s attacks on education are hurting American families.

  • On May 6, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the consequences of President Trump and Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education for American families in a Senate forum.

  • On April 24, 2025, Senator Warren launched a new investigation into the harms of President Trump’s attacks on the Department of Education, seeking information on the impact of the Trump administration’s actions from the members of twelve leading organizations representing schools, parents, teachers, students, borrowers, and researchers.

  • On April 10, 2025, following a request led by Senator Warren, the Department of Education’s Acting Inspector General agreed to open an investigation into the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.

  • On April 2, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mazie Hirono, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding the Department of Government Efficiency’s proposed plan to replace the Department of Education’s federal student aid call centers with generative artificial intelligence chatbots.

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