Letters to Congress

Download the sign-on letter from the 101 undersigned community, civil rights, consumer, and student advocacy organizations insisting on student debt cancellation for all borrowers during negotiations over the next coronavirus relief package.

CRL joined with more than 400 organizations to call on Congress to pass meaningful police reform legislation: Abusive police practices coupled with devastating state-sanctioned violence have exacted systemic brutality and fatality upon Black people since our nation’s founding. The current protests across our country are not new. They are in response to a long cycle of lawlessness against Black people, from our founding to 1968, the year the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr. was murdered. This cycle includes deadly incidents spanning from Los Angeles in 1992 to Ferguson in 2014. Police have...

Nearly forty consumer and civil rights organizations call on the Trump Administration and the Congress to work together and take the following steps to ensure access to the Paycheck Protection Program for underserved businesses and sole proprietors. Set aside $10 billion for use ONLY by Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs), to make this funding available to underserved businesses. Extend the deadline for processing PPP loans until December 31, 2020. For the purposes of granting forgiveness of PPP loans, extend the period during which...

A joint statement on the choice to narrow student loan debt cancellation in the HEROES Act from Action Center on Race and the Economy, American Federation of Teachers, Americans for Financial Reform, Center for Responsible Lending, Demos, Generation Progress, National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), Student Borrower Protection Center, Student Debt Crisis.

From the letter to Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Scott, and Chairman McGovern: As Congress works to better protect Americans from the economic fallout of COVID-19, the financial difficulties of 44 million student loan borrowers and the effect of this debt on the economy cannot be forgotten. The relief in HEROES, especially the $10,000 of cancellation per borrower, will have a significant impact on low-income borrowers and borrowers of color. Student debt exacerbates existing systemic inequities and racial disparities, preventing recovery from extending to already marginalized groups who are still...

From the letter to Secretary Mnuchin: The undersigned civil rights, faith, and community development organizations write to seek that you direct the Small Business Administration (SBA) to designate that Community Financial institutions (CFIs) receive one-third of the $30 billion set aside for three groups of lenders—CFIs, small insured depository institutions, and credit unions—pursuant to H.R. 266, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. Of the three groups of lenders, only CFIs aim specifically at serving communities of color. Congress included them in the $30...

From the letter to Congressional leadership: The undersigned consumer and banking industry organizations write to urge Congress at the soonest possible opportunity to clarify that economic impact payments responding to this public health emergency are exempt from otherwise legally binding garnishment orders. Our organizations have worked together to address this issue and we believe that is possible to protect American families in a manner that is also workable for financial institutions.

While we applaud that quick action for student loan borrowers, we are concerned that this unprecedented crisis is affecting many borrowers who have Perkins loans or Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans that are not federally owned and who are not covered under the CARES Act. We respectfully request that you take action to enact, as part of your next emergency legislation, provisions to extend the CARES Act interest waivers, payment and collection activities suspensions, and other benefits to all FFELP and Perkins borrowers. Download the full letter. (PDF)

A diverse coalition of community organizations signed on to this letter to Congress urging them to protect Americans from price gouging during this unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, by enacting a 36% APR cap on all loans. Congress should amend the Military Lending Act (MLA) to extend to ALL consumers the credit protections provided to members of the Armed Forces and their dependents throughout the duration of the COVID-19 emergency.

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) joined with 26 national civil rights, consumer, housing and labor groups, and 35 state groups in sending a letter to Congress with specific financial policy proposals that help address the needs of families most at risk from the impending economic collapse. A PDF of the letter is included above.