Hi Mike,

Last month, we released The MOHELA Papers—the result of our years-long investigation into the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri, better known as “MOHELA.” We urged policymakers and regulators to investigate and hold both MOHELA and its executives accountable. 

Earlier this week, the United States Senate answered our call!

On Wednesday, under the leadership of Senator Elizabeth Warren, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs’ Subcommittee on Economic Policy held a hearing about MOHELA’s “Performance as a Student Loan Servicer.” SBPC’s very own Persis Yu was invited to provide expert testimony and speak on our findings in The MOHELA Papers, in addition to other witnesses, including Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and educator and AFT member Kathleen White. Despite being invited to appear before the committee, MOHELA’s CEO Scott Giles refused to testify and answer publicly for his company’s widespread servicing failures, instead requesting to answer questions behind closed doors.

While MOHELA’s CEO Scott Giles seemed to be too busy to show up, borrowers turned out en masse, traveling near and far to urge policymakers to hold MOHELA accountable for the harm they have inflicted on borrowers.

In case you missed it, here are just a few of our favorite moments: 

• Kathleen White, a former community college educator of 26 years, shared her emotional and frustrating experience trying to access Public Service Loan Forgiveness, only to be subject to MOHELA’s infuriating servicing failures. By her estimates, if MOHELA had it its way, she would have been stuck paying her loans until she was 81 years old. For nearly two years, she fought back against MOHELA and pushed for the relief she was entitled to. Earlier this year, she finally received cancellation on her remaining balance of $29,765. “I taped the letter on my front door and I cried.”

• In her opening statement, Persis highlighted our damning findings in The MOHELA Papers and demonstrated the scale and severity of MOHELA’s harm done to borrowers. She urged policymakers to reject industry spin and fire MOHELA to finally bring an end to the company's cycle of scandal, deception, and borrower abuse.

• Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Missouri, uplifted the unique ways that local government leaders play on the frontlines of the student debt crisis. In Kansas City alone, there are 80,000 student loan borrowers with $575 million in student debt. Mayor Lucas has seen up close how student debt perpetuates racial inequalities. He spoke out against the Missouri Attorney General’s efforts to rob millions of borrowers of necessary relief and urged Senators and the Biden Administration to continue cancelling student debt and hold MOHELA accountable to alleviate economic burdens for his constituents and their families, empowering them to cover rising costs of living and invest in their local economies and own futures.

• Senator Warren blasted MOHELA for its egregious “call deflection” scheme and the harm it caused borrowers. In short: rather than adequately staffing its call center and making representatives accessible to borrowers, MOHELA drove people to a website that did not meet borrowers’ needs and often had wrong information. Many were forced to call MOHELA anyway, experiencing wait times of up to 9 hours only to be directed back to MOHELA’s broken website. Watch the exchange between Senator Warren and Persis here.

• Senator Raphael Senator Raphael Warnock discussed discussed MOHELA’s role in the infamous Supreme Court lawsuit that blocked President Biden’s original plan to cancel debt for over 40 million borrowers. Senator Warnock asked Persis how MOHELA responded when the Missouri Attorney General sued to block debt relief in its name. What was MOHELA’s response when the case was brought to court? Silence—much like when it failed to appear yesterday. When it’s time for MOHELA to show up for its customers, it fails to do so.



• Senator Warren keenly framed the problem that MOHELA poses for borrowers and its hand in perpetuating the broken student loan system. MOHELA gets paid hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to make a mess. But instead of answering for its failures, MOHELA's CEO goes into hiding. Senator Warren questioned why MOHELA should be let within 10,000 feet of a student loan program—she believes it is time that “the Department of Education [hold] MOHELA accountable for its failures… [s]tudent loan borrowers deserve better than MOHELA.” Watch her statement here.

But ultimately, Persis said it best in this mic-drop moment concluding her testimony: 

“Today’s hearing is an opportunity to hold MOHELA accountable. And while MOHELA’s CEO could not muster the courage to appear before you publicly, I point your attention to the borrowers in this room sitting at this table and right behind me. Borrowers who have taken time out of their busy lives, traveled away from their families to be here in hopes that this body will believe their lived experiences and bring an end to MOHELA’s cycle of scandal, deception, and borrower abuse. It is time to cancel the debt, it is time to make college free, and it is time to fire MOHELA.”

Yours in solidarity,

Ella Azoulay

Research & Policy Analyst