As if people didn’t already have enough reasons to hate robocalls, they might be used to collect student loan debt.

Red Alert Politics reports.

Coming soon: Robocalls to collect on student debt

Congressional action has allowed those with student loan debt to receive robocalls from collectors, and their friends and family might get them too.

The recently approved spending bill in Congress exempted the Department of Education from a ban on “harassing, automated phone calls,” according to the Palestine (TX) Herald.

“The Telephone Consumer Protection Act barred pre-recorded messages or auto-dialing, known as “robocalls,” made to cellphones without the consent of the person called. Last week’s budget grants an exemption to government debt-collectors, allowing them to auto-dial and make twice as many calls as they can by hand,” Kery Murakami writes.

Senators Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey, Mike Lee, and Orrin Hatch sent a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan urging him to delay robocall authorization until the FCC creates rules surrounding the use of robocalls.

For borrowers, the rule change means that millions of them could get harassed for the debts they owe. Student debt has reached $1.2 trillion nationwide, scattered among 43.3 million borrowers. With 17 percent of borrowers making late payments, only 37 percent were paying on time and reducing their debt balances.

The Education Department pushed for the change to improve collection rates and alert borrowers to the importance of paying loans on time. With the expansion of income-based repayment plans, the department claims that students falling behind on their loans could begin an IBR plan, netting more revenue in the short-term. If debtors stay in an IBR plan, however, the government takes a loss on a portion of the unpaid loan.