Student loan expert explains U.S. House's vote to repeal forgiveness and repayment programs

Massive delays and uncertainty as to where certain payment plans stand or causing anxiety for some student loan borrowers. And early this morning, the U. S. House voted to repeal several student loan forgiveness and repayment programs. KDK consumer investigator Megan Schiller talked to a student loan expert today to help borrowers make sense of all this. Megan came and bury today. House Republicans passed President Trump's one big, beautiful bill, and it includes sweeping changes to student loan forgiveness and repayment. Now we're still early in the game, but it is a step towards what the future might look like for those in debt from their pursuit of higher education. We're talking a total overhaul of income driven repayment plans, a new repayment assistance plan and new caps on borrowing all on the table. Following an early morning vote, there's a lot of details that are still to come, so I wouldn't panic quite yet. But people do need to be thinking about what do I need to do with my budget if my payment is gonna increase? Student loan expert Amy Lins with Money Management International says we're looking at big changes. The legislation looks to repeal the income contingent repayment plan pay as you earn plan and saving on a valuable education or save plan automatically move borrowers into a modified version of the income based repayment plan, which may result in higher payments, according to the Student Borrower Protection Center, and also create a new income driven plan called the repayment assistance plan or wrap. It's looking like 360 payments, so a little more like a mortgage, right? So it's a longer period. So instead of 20 years or 25 years now, it's a 30 year repayment period. Lins encourages everyone with student loan debt as more information comes out to rely on the loan simulator calculator at student aid dot gov to inform your decisions. You gotta really start to kind of go into beast mode, right? Go into that beast mode of like, Okay, how do I increase my income? How do I decrease my expenses? What is my drop dead number on what I can pay? Um, do I have to tweak my lifestyle? Do I have to start thinking about economizing? And the bill also looks to prohibit the Department of Education from enacting any new broad student loan forgiveness programs using regulatory action like President Biden tried to do now. Nothing's final yet. All eyes now turn to the Senate. Kim and Barry.