DFNYC, along with the National Association of Graduate Professional Students and Student Loan Justice need your help to support the Student Borrowers' Bill of Rights (S. 511) This bill would reinstate basic consumer protections for students - protections that were removed by a Republican Congress.

The Student Borrowers' Bill of Rights applies to private loans such as those lent by Sallie Mae. S. 511 reinstates basic consumer protections such as limits on monthly payments on private loans and reinstates bankruptcy protection most consumers have. S. 511 needs revival and needs to be retroactive. Senator Clinton introduced it in February 2007 but it has been languishing without action in the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

The committee is chaired by Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy and includes both of the two remaining Democratic presidential contenders, Clinton and Obama, as well as former presidential candidate Chris Dodd. Co-sponsors of the bill include Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).

Contact Senator Clinton (or, if you're in Connecticut, Senator Dodd) and urge them to revive the Student Borrowers' Bill of Rights (S. 511), make it retroactive and send it to the Senate floor for passage.

And...if you have friends in the states of other committee members, write them and ask them to write their Senators:

Democrats:

Edward Kennedy (MA)
Christopher Dodd (CT)
Tom Harkin (IA)
Barbara A. Mikulski (MD)
Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Patty Murray (WA)
Jack Reed (RI)
Hillary Rodham Clinton(NY)
Barack Obama (IL)
Bernard Sanders (I) (VT)
Sherrod Brown (OH)

Republicans:

Michael B. Enzi (WY)
Judd Gregg (NH)
Lamar Alexander (TN)
Richard Burr (NC)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Orrin G. Hatch (UT)
Pat Roberts (KS)
Wayne Allard (CO)
Tom Coburn, M.D. (OK)