U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee; U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY); and U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), led 24 U.S. Senators in sending a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting an update on efforts to improve how the agencies handle undue hardship claims by student borrowers in bankruptcy proceedings. More than 45 million Americans hold more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt, and cumulative student loan debt is the second largest category of consumer debt after mortgages. While most forms of debt can be discharged through the bankruptcy process, student loan debt is currently treated as non-dischargeable except in extremely rare cases of “undue hardship.” The term “undue hardship” has been interpreted by courts to establish high hurdles for borrowers to meet—a challenge made even more difficult by federal agency policies that encourage aggressive challenges in bankruptcy court when student borrowers bring undue hardship claims. Last year, Durbin and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the bipartisan FRESH START Through Bankruptcy Act, which would restore the ability for struggling borrowers to seek bankruptcy discharge for federal student loans after a waiting period of ten years in addition to the existing undue hardship option. Today’s letter complements this legislative effort.  As Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Durbin held a hearing on student loan bankruptcy reform that featured testimony from Americans buried under hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.