Bipartisan Lending.gov Bill Introduced in House and Senate!
A bipartisan quartet of lawmakers – Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Representatives Brad Finstad (R-MN) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) – introduced the Federal Loan Systems Modernization Act of 2026, which would create a government-wide shared services lending platform at Lending.gov.
It directs GSA to plan and build a single technology platform providing a modern front door for borrowers and standardized back-end loan management for participating agencies, while preserving individual program authorities.
Doug Criscitello, Executive Director of the Center for USA Lending, said the bill addresses something fundamental: that good lending policy requires good lending infrastructure. The legislation is also endorsed by the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, the Association of Government Accountants, the Shared Services Leadership Coalition, the Program Integrity Alliance, and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
GAO Finds Gaps in Student Loan Servicer Oversight
A new GAO report (GAO-26-108534) finds that the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid stopped assessing student loan servicers on data accuracy and call quality in February 2025, citing reduced staff capacity. Prior to the change, four of five servicers were failing to meet accuracy performance standards.
GAO recommends Education resume the assessments, warning that without them, borrowers could be placed in wrong repayment statuses or billed incorrect amounts. Education disagreed with the recommendation, saying other oversight methods remain in place.
CBO Releases Annual Federal Credit Cost Estimates
CBO published its annual Estimates of the Cost of Federal Credit Programs in 2026, presenting two sets of cost projections for new federal loans and loan guarantees: one following procedures under the Federal Credit Reform Act and the other using a fair-value approach.
This perennial report remains a valuable reference for policymakers and budget analysts because it holds both frameworks up to the light simultaneously. While fair-value estimates capture a fuller picture of the economic cost of risk-bearing, FCRA estimates reflect the law as written and operationalized over the last 35 years.
Federal Lending Fraud: A War with Multiple Fronts
Several recent developments underscore the scope of fraud challenges facing federal lending programs and the range of tools being deployed in response. GAO reported (GAO-26-107682) that SBA’s process for sharing tax data with the IRS to verify disaster loan applicants relies on inefficient manual consent procedures, and recommended that SBA seek statutory authority to receive taxpayer data directly, which would strengthen fraud prevention for future emergencies.
Separately, GAO testified (GAO-26-108820) that SBA has implemented 17 of 42 outstanding recommendations related to fraud risks and improper payments, and estimated that controls put in place for pandemic relief programs have saved more than $30 billion.
On the enforcement side, DOJ reported more than 200 False Claims Act settlements in the past fiscal year tied to pandemic relief fraud, recovering over $230 million, with total pandemic-related FCA recoveries now exceeding $820 million.
And SBA signed a contract with Palantir for a fraud prevention pilot and bootcamp, signaling growing interest in using AI and advanced data analytics to detect fraudulent lending activity. Taken together, these actions reinforce the case for the kind of centralized, modern infrastructure envisioned by the Lending.gov legislation.
March 25, 2026: ACT-IAC Federal Insights Exchange on the Future of Federal Financial Management and Credit
ACT-IAC hosts in-person Federal Insights Exchange March 25 at CGI Federal in Arlington, VA, focused on the evolution of federal financial management and the role of federal credit programs.
The session will explore how money moves across government, how risk and accountability can be managed at scale, and how modernization efforts, including shared services, commercial platforms, and emerging technologies, can strengthen integrity and public trust.
Jon Remedios, Director of Strategy at Allocore, will moderate a panel featuring David Lebryk, former Fiscal Assistant Secretary at the Department of the Treasury, and Doug Criscitello, Executive Director of the Center for USA Lending.
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From Field Offices to $220B: Inside USDA’s Lending Empire
In this episode of The Center for USA Lending’s The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we sit down with longtime USDA leader Roger Glendenning for a sweeping look at one of the federal government’s largest and most complex lending portfolios.
Drawing on a 36-year career spanning field offices to the C-suite, Roger walks us through the evolution of rural development programs, from knocking on doors to collect loan payments to managing a $220 billion portfolio serving over a million borrowers.
Roger makes the case for shared services as the future of federal lending, highlighting opportunities for cross-agency collaboration, centralized platforms, and smarter use of existing contracts to modernize how government delivers credit.