People behind on student loans get put into lower-payment plans
H.R. 10220 — SIMPLE Act · Filed by Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 2, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill changes federal student loan rules. People who fall 31 or more days behind get put into income-driven repayment plans. The Department of Education will use IRS tax data to figure out how much money people make. If people do not pick a plan within 75 days, the state puts them in the lowest-payment plan. People can still opt out or switch plans later.
Who it affects
People who fall behind on student loans get access to lower monthly payments without having to apply. The bill lets the IRS share tax return data with the Department of Education.
One thing to notice
People with zero income or no tax filing may get a $0 monthly payment. This could make loans take longer to pay off and cost more in interest.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 6 Democrats.
- Sep 2, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 2, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means and House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- income-driven repayment plans — Payment plans where monthly payments are based on how much money a person makes.
- IRS tax data — Facts about income that the Internal Revenue Service collects from tax returns.
- opt out — Choose not to take part in something you were put into.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (16,983 characters) on Sep 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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