This General Accounting Office (GAO) testimony before the Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education, Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, concerns the findings of the task force that addressed the increasing costs of student loan defaults. The task force report is considered, generally, to provide additional incentives and tools for program participants to use to better manage their programs and control defaults and to complement recent legislative and regulatory changes. The following topics are discussed: (1) characteristics of defaulters; (2) task force proposals; (3) lender risk sharing; and (4) origination fees for other loan programs. The task force proposal to substantially increase Pell Grant funding is not considered advisable, due to its cost in comparison to the much smaller default savings it would realize. Two proposals are offered that were not proposed in the task force report: (1) lender risk sharing (providing a stronger incentive to avoid defaults and improve their collections efforts); and (2) charging loan origination fees for loans guaranteed under the Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) and the Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS) programs. (KM)