Student Loan Bankruptcy Improvement Act of 2025

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 4444 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 4444 To provide a more equitable discharge standard for student loan borrowers. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 16, 2025 Mr. Correa (for himself, Ms. Adams, Ms. Balint, Mr. Carter of Louisiana, Mr. Fields, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Ms. Lofgren, Ms. Norton, Ms. Ross, Mr. Swalwell, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Thanedar, Mr. Tonko, and Ms. Velazquez) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To provide a more equitable discharge standard for student loan borrowers. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Student Loan Bankruptcy Improvement Act of 2025''. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. The Congress finds the following: (1) Student loan borrowers deserve an opportunity to discharge debt using a fair, nation-wide standard for relief. (2) The current standard of ``undue hardship'' fails to provide an achievable avenue for relief of student loan debt requiring significant costs and a paperwork burden. (3) Student loan borrowers rarely meet the arbitrary and draconian standard of ``undue hardship,'' especially in jurisdictions using the ``Brunner'' test, with only 0.01% successfully being discharged as of 2022. (4) The criteria utilized in the ``Brunner'' test, which is used by most bankruptcy courts in the United States, is inconsistent with the main goal of bankruptcy of giving honest debtors a ``fresh start,'' enabling them to more fully participate and contribute to the economy. (5) The ``Brunner'' test was developed by the courts decades ago when debtors could discharge their student loa