More than 40 million Americans are in debt thanks to their education, and most of their loans come from Uncle Sam. So President Barack Obama is aiming to clamp down on the private companies that service federal student debt with a presidential memorandum.

Obama's policy tweaks don't require new legislation from Congress, a plus as far as the White House is concerned. But they won't be earth-shattering for student-borrowers, either. Instead, the new steps seek to tilt the student lending process more toward the student, with a particular focus on graduates struggling to make their monthly payments.

“It's an executive action we're able to take to streamline and improve the manner in which the federal government interacts with students when it comes to student loans,” Obama said as he signed the memo in the Oval Office on Tuesday.