Biden Administration's Overhaul of PSLF Program Includes Johnson and Courtney Bill for Active-duty Military

Press Release

Today the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced an overhaul of the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF). The changes included the Recognizing Military Service in PSLF Act (H.R. 3684), a bill introduced by U.S. Representatives Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) and Joe Courtney (D-CT-02), to allow active-duty servicemembers to count months spent on active duty toward PSLF, even if the servicemember's loans were on a deferment or forbearance rather than in active repayment.

"Allowing all deployed servicemembers to receive credit toward student loan repayment is only fair," said Johnson. "I'm glad the administration has looked to our bill for this solution, and I thank Congressman Courtney for his leadership."

"For the 10,000 active-duty servicemembers who are deployed overseas at any given time while placing their student loans in military service deferment, these new changes mean that their full period of deployment will now be counted towards their student loan forgiveness," said Courtney. "Just this week, 60 Minutes reported that only 350 members of the armed services have been able to take advantage of PSLF so far--a minute fraction compared the 180,000 who are eligible. Our public service workers entered into an agreement where they were promised these benefits, and no one deserves it more than our uniformed, active-duty servicemembers deployed far away from home. This is a correction we've worked hard to bring about, and it couldn't have happened without the strong, consistent support of servicemembers and veterans in Connecticut and across the country."

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