A tripling of student debt over the past decade to more than $1.3 trillion has unleashed a torrent of Washington, D.C., lobbying from outside the education sector, with various industries describing a “crisis” requiring federal intervention, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Real estate agents, farmers, architects, startup lenders, lawyers, tech companies, benefits administrators — even podiatrists — have sent lobbyists to Capitol Hill over the past two years to push for legislation to forgive or at least reduce what workers and consumers owe on their student loans. The efforts reflect the federal government’s unique position as the nation’s primary lender to college and graduate students. Its student-loan portfolio — topping $1 trillion — is big enough to rival the holdings of some banks, but it is controlled by elected leaders who are subject to the kind of political pressure that private lenders aren’t. And while colleges and universities have long been a big lobbying presence on Capitol Hill, increasingly the pressure is coming from the private sector.
