We are SpousalConsolidation.DoUsPart!
We are a grassroots organization that centers the needs and voices of joint/spousal consolidation borrowers, and partners with allies, to impact statute and policy towards these unlawful loans.

Fighting to Restore Parity to Joint Consolidation Borrowers.

The efforts to rectify the course for Joint Consolidation Loans (JCL), a.k.a. Spousal Consolidation Loans, have been nothing short of a fight every step of the way.  While we successfully reinstated JCLs and JCL borrowers to statute in Public Law 117-200, the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act (JCLSA) , the Department of Education's (ED) implementation of these new regulations and procedures, through Federal Student Aid (FSA),  has been stymied since passage by defunding, volatility and depleted resources.  We have found our voice, we must continue to use it to realize our true end game, financial freedom and stability.
Restoring our voice and building community​...
This is an ongoing effort as we want to find and build a community of Joint Consolidation Loan (JCL) borrowers to embolden our advocacy and to ensure that borrowers are able to properly separate these loans, get rightful payment credits and restore their path to financial independence.

This is a continuous process.  Joint Consolidation Loan (JCL) holders’ voices were taken on July 1, 2006, when provisions from the Higher Education Reconciliation Act (HERA) struck “Joint Consolidation” and all associated language from statute in the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA).  Consequently, a literal policy vacuum formed for JCL borrowers, effectively eliminating all regulation, policy and procedure for creating, managing, translating, porting or reconsolidating JCLs, including any further tracking of the loans in the Deparment of Education’s (ED) de facto tracking system, the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).  This left JCL borrowers margialized from remaining and any new programs, stranding existing borrowers without the same loan management options as mainstream consolidation borrowers.  With no systemic anchor remaining, borrowers drifted unconnected at sea for decades with no options for managing these loans.  

Since January 2022, DoUsPart! Has recruited and organized a group of JCL borrowers to re-assemble our share our collective story in order to reclaim our collective voice and mobilize and leverage it towards correcting our circumstances.
Restoring our place in statute...
We have successfully moved the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act (JCLSA to Public Law 117-200.  By law, borrowers can now separate their Joint Consolidation Loans (JCL).
Throughout 2022, DoUsPart! grew our footprint and visibility to push the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act (JCLSA) into law, restoring JCLs and JCL borrowers to statute.
  • For the first time, JCL borrowers, who had never known another JCL borrower, organized into DoUsPart! And began to share our stories.  We grew over 1714% in 2022. We continue to grow.
  • We built strategic partnerships with Congressional offices and national advocacies, and built relationships with journalists from major news outlets to raise our collective experience from personal nightmares to public visibility. 
  • We mobilized DoUsPart! members across 47 states to gain support through Congress for the JCLSA.  In six months, DoUsPart! rallied bipartisan support and recruited twenty-two bill sponsors to the JCLSA.  Through our advocacy and partnership with key bill sponsors, the JCLSA passed via Unanimous Consent in the Senate on June 15, 2022. The bill was then passed by the House on September 21, 2022, with 55% approval, as we garnered support and commitment from 14 Republicans.  The JCLSA was signed into law on October 11, 2025 becoming Public Law 117-200.  After 16 years, JCLs and JCL borrowers reclaimed a place in statute.
Restoring our financial independence and stability (... our current FOCUS)...
While implementation of PL117-200 began in October 2024, this checkbox remains unchecked as we continue to focus efforts so that borrowers can gain access to all benefits under federal statute and Department policies.
​While we restored Joint Consolidation Loans (JCL) and JCL borrowers to statute, the Department of Education's (ED) implementation, policies, and procedures for carrying out the law have stalled and drug for three years.  Separation of JCLs started in October 2024, two years after law passage.  Consequently, communication and execution by ED are not well practiced or refined and the administration of all benefits remains incomplete, leaving many borrowers  frozen in process and frustrated. 

Financial independence and stability manifests itself in varying ways depending on the nuances of each borrower’s story, but independence implies the freedom to make informed choices, which was not something typically afforded to JCL borrowers, especially those locked into old Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL).  In terms of statute and policy, there are three benefits under the JCLSA that can put borrowers on the path towards financial independence and restoration.  Our current attention is focused on these with hope that they can be realized properly by JCL borrowers.
  1. Separation.  Under the JCLSA, JCL borrowers now have the right to separate their JCL loan, for which co-borrowers are severally liable, into individual consolidation loans for each respective borrower.  The Department of Education (ED) began processing Applications for Separation in October 2024.  For the first time in 18 years, borrowers can choose to separate their loans.
  2. Access to Direct Loans.  Under the JCLSA, JCL borrowers, with  FFEL,  can now move to the Federal Direct Loan Program when separating their loan to take advantage of Federal Direct Loan benefits, like access to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).  For the first time in 18 years, FFEL JCL borrowers can choose to consolidate to Direct loans.
  3. Forgiveness qualifying payments.  Under ED’s current policies, JCL borrowers who meet certain thresholds can receive retroactive payment adjustments for Income Driven Repayment (IDR) and PSLF credits based on the one-time IDR Payment Adjustment.  For the first time in 18 years, FFEL JCL borrowers may have the opportunity to choose to access PSLF forgiveness and other benefits.
What are Joint ("Spousal") Consolidation Loans?

Separation is Law.

The Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act (JCLSA)was passed into law by presidential signing on October 12, 2022.  It is now Public Law 117-200.
Read the official PL 117-200 PDF here.
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Click the Image to Read the Story. SpousalConsolidation.DoUsPart! supported efforts with a Senate Blitz to put faces, voices and stories to the legislation.
This statistic is taken from one of our many members polls, as of August 2025.
... This is absolutely worthy of celebration, especially for divorced and financially abused JCL borrowers who have remained tethered to their uncooperative former spouse or abuser only through these loans.

Our endgame is financial independence. Therefore, we cannot stop only at this first step. We must see payment credits administered according to policy for those JCL borrowers, who are some of the oldest student loan borrowers in America, so that they may rightfully qualify for Income Driven Repayment (IDR) Forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) rightfully under statute.

JCLSA Original Sponsors

 A very special thanks to our bill sponsors, who both applaud the passage of the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act.
Senator Mark Warner
​Virginia
Representative David Price (retired)
North Carolina
​District 4

Our Testimonies.

These loans have held financial liberties captive since July 1, 2006 and have prevented real forms of  reprieve for any Joint Consolidation Loan borrower.  In this, they have minimized access to the ‘American Dream’ and forced debtors into legal, financial and physical peril and compromise for eighteen years.​​
CLICK A SCROLLING  IMAGE  TO READ THE FULL STORY.

The Case for Spousal Consolidation Loan Separation.

Before passing the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act by unanimous consent in the Senate, on June 15, 2022, Mark Warner presented the case for spousal consolidation borrowers and the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act in the Senate Banking Committee hearing on May 5, 2022.  This discussion also featured testimony by Mike Pierce, Executive Director for the Student Borrower Protection Center.

Our Stories in The News.

2022

For the first time in over 15 years, we have joined in union to take back our story.  Our members and spousal consolidation borrowers from across the country have sought media to share their stories.  Read these articles to better understand student loan borrowers who have been abandoned, undocumented, deplete of financial options and forced to languish in a literal policy vacuum since the 109th Congress abandoned our loan program in June 2006.  They did this to avert risk to the Department of Education, loan servicers and investors while leaving borrowers with these loans at high risk to Default and Bankruptcy.  
SpousalConsolidation.DoUsPart!
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