Jim Coopers Recent Response

Dear Mr. Gresham:

Thank you for sharing your concerns about student loans. As a teacher myself, I appreciate your advocacy on behalf of Tennessee's students.

I share your alarm over our students' personal debt and have long supported programs to make higher education more affordable and to ease the burden of student loans. For example, in the 111thCongress, the House passed H.R. 5458, the Christopher BryskiStudent Loan Protection Act. This bill sought to amend the Truth in Lending Act so that institutions of higher education include information on creating a power of attorney while counseling new borrowers and cosigners. It also required that lenders of private educational loans clearly describe a cosigners' obligation in the event that the borrower or cosigner becomes disabled, incapacitated, or passes away.

Although H.R. 5458 passed the House, the Senate failed to act. If I have another opportunity to vote on this or similar legislation, I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind.

Thanks again for taking the time to get in touch with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me again if my office can be of additional assistance.

Sincerely,

Jim Cooper
Member of Congress

Rep. Cooper Contact #2 for 2012

Representative Cooper,
I read in a recent Forbes article that Americans now owe more to student loans than they do credit cards.  Won't you please help restore standard consumer protections to student loans?

Contacting Rep. Jim Cooper

I have once again contacted Jim Cooper out of Tennessee's 5th district. In my previous attempts to contact him about the current system of student loan lending and how it was an opressive system because it does not allow people the chance for a clean slate on all of their debt when they file bankruptcy, he basically stated that he supports the current system. He didn't even acknowledge that some change was needed. I will be contacting him and other representatives on a regular basis at this point. I will post their replies here for all to see and eventually I will start contacting the press about their refusal to do something about a situation in which people's wages and social security are being garnished without a court hearing. A system where regardless of the spouses financial or health situation, a person must continue to pay their loans and their spouses because there is no bankruptcy on student loans. Getting a loan dismissed in bankruptcy for disability is almost impossible. Stay tuned. I will be updated frequently and contacting the papers.