A federal law was passed in 2010 that required all student to originate from the DoE, giving them a monopoly on the juicy, high interest, high balance, zero risk loans given out to millions of Americans each year. Because of this, the DoE rakes in billions a year in profits from student loan interest.
It's possible that this was the first step in a plan to gradually unwind the student loan crisis. I'm sure that changing the repayment rules while commercial lenders owned most of the student loan debt would cause a massive backlash.
So this $7.7 could hit their bottom line and barely move it. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-11/a-144-000-...
It's possible that this was the first step in a plan to gradually unwind the student loan crisis. I'm sure that changing the repayment rules while commercial lenders owned most of the student loan debt would cause a massive backlash.