In Steege’s case she used the money to fund her seminary training.
But the day before her meeting, Steege learned that President Donald Trump – with help from Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency – had taken steps to shut down the CFPB – the agency that was supposed to help her with the Department of Education and eliminate the debt. To make matters worse, Steege was battling advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She was given just six months to live and now lives in hospice care.
Steege, who prior to joining the clergy was a banker, public relations worker and a teacher, is now the sole consumer plaintiff in a lawsuit being brought against the CFPB and Acting Director Russell Vought to challenge the unlawful dismantling of the bureau.
The lawsuit, amended last month to include Steege, states that she “is entitled to discharge her loans under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and the CFPB was helping her do so.”
“Pastor Steege wants to ensure that she discharges her debt before she dies, so that she will not burden her surviving family, and because she could pass on to her family as much as $15,000 of overpayments,” the suit states. “Pastor Steege had a meeting scheduled with the bureau…that was suddenly canceled because of the CFPB’s unlawful closure.
“Absent the CFPB’s assistance, it is unlikely that she will be able to discharge her debt and get her overpayments returned before she passes away.
Steege had struggled to enroll in a federal loan forgiveness plan, operated through the Department of Education. “I have friends who have zipped right through the process [of enrolling in PSLF], but it still feels like it’s one thing after another that makes this fairly simple thing much more difficult than it needs to be,” Steege told The Independent. “Add to that, I had a slightly more complicated public service career, but it also feels like they’re almost looking for ways that they don’t have to do this. I know that’s probably not true in the real world, but I can imagine a lot of people thinking, ‘Why on earth do they have a reason for stopping this kind of fairly direct, simple request?’
“I put my original request in in 2022 – that’s a long time – and I’ve filled out all the forms nicely and as precisely as I know how. And yet, there’s some other weird reason why they can’t do this.”
After an initial meeting in January, she was hopeful that she might finally enroll in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, have her loans forgiven and receive a refund. A follow-up meeting was scheduled with CFPB for February 10.
That was until Trump and Musk started making their cuts.
“I guess there’s an odd feeling. It might be my own, it might not be valid, but it feels like one way or another, they’re going out of their way to make this thing worse,” Steege told The Independent.
“One of the Feds’ suggestions even was, can you believe it, that maybe my computer wasn’t working, and I should go to the library or find some other reason why this wasn’t working – that it’s somehow my fault.”
If the CFPB isn’t able to help her, Pastor Steege will spend her final six months “in great duress, worried that she is leaving her family with a financial burden and without the monetary help to which they are entitled” the suit states.
$15,000 in overpayments? WTF? Somehow Pastor Steege, a somewhat casual steward of other people’s money, managed to acquired an extra $15K and fritter it away while acquiring the credentials to become another White Bwana. And now the Diabolical Duo of Trump and Musk want the money back. HOW. RUDE. Don’t they realize “…I’ve filled out all the forms nicely and as precisely as I know how.” How dare those villians deny her the opportunity to not only die with an undischarged debt, but to go out a winner with a $15,000 windfall for her heirs. Oh, the humanity!
When I die, bury me in my straight-leg britches Put on a box-back coat and a Stetson hat Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain So you can let all the boys know I died standing pat
The Random Texan 
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