1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

I'm writing today to impress upon you how the OBBBA and its student loan provisions is impacting your constituents. I graduated a local university in 2012 with $35,123 in federal student loan debt. The interest rate is 6%. I have a business degree, but it still took 3 years to get a job in my field. Despite this, I have never missed a payment. To date, I have paid $7,000 towards my loans. My balance today is $47,161. (That's $12,038 more than what I took out....and let's not forget the $7,000 I've already paid.) When COVID happened, my life changed drastically-I got married. I took advantage of the COVID payment pause to facilitate my husband and I establishing our home. When SAVE became an option, I applied for it and was approved. My payment was going to be an incredibly manageable amount. Then, in 2024, my husband died. 2 weeks after his funeral, I learned I was pregnant. Thankfully, my pregnancy was smooth and I'm now the very proud mother of a precious little girl. Then the lawsuits to dismantle SAVE happened, along with the passage of the OBBBA. Now, my payment has gone from $14/month to, at minimum, $296 on RAP. This is a 2,014.29% increase. All I have ever wanted in life is the American dream. Hardworking husband, picket fence, one child. I almost had it all, until my husband died. I would like to think I live in a country where I could still achieve that picket fence for my little girl and myself, but the cost of living continues to rise. The home I rented in 2019 was $650. Now similar homes rent for $1400. This is just one example. I have daycare costs to contend with, and the gas it takes to get to and from daycare. These are expenses that I didn't have to account for when I was approved for SAVE. If you have read this far, thank you. What I would ask is that you call for those who have been approved for SAVE prior the the Mohela lawsuit being settled and the passage of the OBBBA be allowed to be grandfathered in and remain on that plan. If that is not an option, returning borrowers who are on SAVE to REPAYE is another option that could help the millions of us currently panicking over the drastic increase in our payments. My story, while unique to me, isn't the only one with such dramatic impact, and I would ask that my government see its people as people, not line items in a ledger.