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    September 2021 Washington Letter

     

    Federal Government

    Student Debt Week of Action

    On September 20-24, the Governmental Affairs Office and the ABA Day Planning Committee hosted the ABA’s second all-virtual lobbying event of the year: the Student Debt Week of Action.

    This Month's Articles

    Advocate of the Month

    We are proud to honor Aaron Sohaski as our Advocate of the Month for September 2021! Aaron has been a long-time ABA member who began his leadership in the organization as Chair of the Law Student Division. Now Aaron advocates for the number one issue impacting Young Lawyers Division members: student debt. In 2021, Aaron successfully moved Resolution 106C through the ABA House of Delegates, which urged Congress and the Executive Branch to develop and implement program to assist lawyers by looking at extended student repayment terms, enhanced refinance options, and loan forgiveness in certain situations. Then, in front of that same body he advocated in favor of Resolution 512, which urged Congress to enact legislation to amend the U.S. Bankruptcy code to permit student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy without needing to prove undue hardship. Coming off the ABA’s Student Debt Week of Action, Aaron participated in an in-depth conversation regarding the ABA YLD’s 2021 Student Debt Survey, which is a follow up Survey from the 2020 Student Debt Survey. These Surveys have served as a beacon for advocacy in the student debt space.

    Legislative Research Tip

    Deep Linking on Congress.gov Congress.gov provides a “deep linking” option which allows users to link to a specific section within a lengthy document. To access a deep link for a bill on Congress.gov, go to the “text” tab of the bill page, select the XML/HTML version and locate your section of interest in the table of contents. Right-click on the section title and select “copy link address”. This link will take any user directly to this portion of the document.

    About the Washington Letter

    The ABA Washington Letter is a monthly publication produced by the Governmental Affairs Office to report and analyze congressional and executive branch action on legislative issues of interest to the ABA and the legal profession. The newsletter highlights ABA involvement in the federal legislative process and focuses on the association's legislative and governmental priorities and other issues on which the ABA has policy.

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