I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2829
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to improve the Public Service
Loan Forgiveness program and reduce interest rates.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL10, 2025
Mr. C
OURTNEY(for himself and Mr. DESAULNIER) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to improve
the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and reduce
interest rates.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strengthening Efforts 4
for Relief and Vital Incentives for Community Service and 5
Engagement Act’’ or the ‘‘SERVICE Act’’. 6
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SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF PUB-1
LIC SERVICE LOAN FORGIVENESS. 2
(a) N
UMBER OFMONTHLYPAYMENTS.—Paragraph 3
(1) of section 455(m) of the Higher Education Act of 4
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(m)) is amended— 5
(1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), 6
by striking ‘‘a borrower who’’ and inserting ‘‘a bor-7
rower’’; 8
(2) by amending subparagraph (A) to read as 9
follows: 10
‘‘(A) who— 11
‘‘(i) has made 96 qualifying monthly 12
payments on the eligible Federal Direct 13
Loan after October 1, 2007; and 14
‘‘(ii) has been employed in a public 15
service job during the period in which the 16
borrower makes each of the 96 qualifying 17
monthly payments; and’’; and 18
(3) by amending subparagraph (B) to read as 19
follows: 20
‘‘(B) without regard to the employment 21
status of the borrower at the time of such can-22
cellation.’’. 23
(b) R
EDESIGNATIONS.—Section 455(m) of the High-24
er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(m)) is further 25
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amended by redesignating paragraphs (2), (3), and (4), 1
as paragraphs (3), (6), and (7), respectively; 2
(c) M
ONTHLYPAYMENTS.—Section 455(m) of the 3
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(m)) is 4
further amended— 5
(1) by inserting after paragraph (1), as so 6
amended, the following: 7
‘‘(2) M
ONTHLY PAYMENTS .— 8
‘‘(A) Q
UALIFYING MONTHLY PAYMENTS .— 9
For the purpose of determining under para-10
graph (1) the number of qualifying monthly 11
payments made by a borrower on an eligible 12
Federal Direct Loan, the Secretary shall con-13
sider the borrower to have made a qualifying 14
monthly payment for each month that— 15
‘‘(i) the borrower pays (as a lump 16
sum or in multiple installments) an 17
amount that is not less than the monthly 18
payment amount due on the eligible Fed-19
eral Direct Loan pursuant to any one or a 20
combination of the following— 21
‘‘(I) payments under an income- 22
based repayment plan under section 23
493C; 24
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‘‘(II) payments under a standard 1
repayment plan under subsection 2
(d)(1)(A), based on a 10-year repay-3
ment period; 4
‘‘(III) monthly payments under a 5
repayment plan under subsection 6
(d)(1) or (g) of not less than the 7
monthly amount calculated under sub-8
section (d)(1)(A), based on a 10-year 9
repayment period; or 10
‘‘(IV) payments under an income 11
contingent repayment plan under sub-12
section (d)(1)(D); or 13
‘‘(ii) in lieu of a payment described in 14
clause (i), the borrower is in one of the fol-15
lowing periods of deferment or forbear-16
ance— 17
‘‘(I) cancer treatment deferment 18
under section 427(a)(2)(C)(iv), 19
428(b)(1)(M)(v), or 455(f)(3); 20
‘‘(II) rehabilitation training pro-21
gram deferment under section 22
427(a)(2)(C)(i)(II), 23
428(b)(1)(M)(i)(II), or 24
455(f)(2)(A)(ii); 25
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‘‘(III) military service deferment 1
under section 428(b)(1)(M)(iii) or 2
455(f)(2)(C); 3
‘‘(IV) unemployment deferment 4
under section 427(a)(2)(C)(ii), 5
428(b)(1)(M)(ii), 428B(d)(1)(A)(i), or 6
455(f)(2)(B); 7
‘‘(V) deferment due to an eco-8
nomic hardship described in section 9
427(a)(2)(C)(iii), section 10
428(b)(1)(M)(iv), section 11
428B(d)(1)(A)(i), section 435(o), or 12
section 455(f)(2)(D); 13
‘‘(VI) Peace Corps service 14
deferment under section 15
682.210(b)(2)(ii) or 682.210(k) of 16
title 34, Code of Federal Regulations 17
(or successor regulations), as made 18
applicable to Direct Loan borrowers 19
under section 685.204(j) of such title 20
34; 21
‘‘(VII) post-active-duty student 22
deferment under section 493D; 23
‘‘(VIII) AmeriCorps forbearance 24
under section 428(c)(3)(A)(i)(III); 25
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‘‘(IX) National Guard Duty for-1
bearance under section 2
682.211(h)(2)(iii) or 685.205(a)(7) of 3
title 34, Code of Federal Regulations 4
(or successor regulations); 5
‘‘(X) Department of Defense stu-6
dent loan repayment program forbear-7
ance under section 8
428(c)(3)(A)(i)(IV); 9
‘‘(XI) administrative forbearance 10
or mandatory administrative forbear-11
ance under section 428(c)(3)(D) or 12
428H(e)(7); or 13
‘‘(XII) student loan debt burden 14
forbearance under section 15
428(c)(3)(A)(i)(II). 16
‘‘(B) P
REPAYMENTS.— 17
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to clause 18
(ii), if, for any month, a borrower makes a 19
qualifying monthly payment on an eligible 20
Federal Direct Loan in an amount that ex-21
ceeds the monthly payment amount due on 22
such loan for such month, the Secretary 23
shall— 24
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‘‘(I) if the excess amount is less 1
than the monthly payment amount 2
due for the subsequent month on such 3
loan, apply the excess amount toward 4
the monthly payment amount due for 5
such subsequent month; 6
‘‘(II) if the excess amount is 7
equal to the monthly payment amount 8
due for the subsequent month on such 9
loan, treat the excess amount as the 10
monthly payment for such subsequent 11
month; 12
‘‘(III) if the excess amount is 13
greater than the monthly payment 14
amount due for the subsequent month 15
on such loan, but less than the total 16
monthly payment amounts due for the 17
2 subsequent months on such loan— 18
‘‘(aa) treat the portion of 19
the excess amount that covers 20
the monthly payment amount due 21
for the subsequent month as the 22
monthly payment for such subse-23
quent month; and 24
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‘‘(bb) apply the remainder of 1
the excess amount toward the 2
monthly payment amount due for 3
the second subsequent month; 4
‘‘(IV) if the excess amount is 5
equal to or greater than the monthly 6
payment amount due for the 2 subse-7
quent months on such loan, but less 8
than the total monthly payment 9
amounts due for the 3 subsequent 10
months on such loan— 11
‘‘(aa) treat the portion of 12
the excess amount that covers 13
the monthly payment amounts 14
due for the subsequent month 15
and the second subsequent month 16
as the monthly payments for 17
such months; and 18
‘‘(bb) apply any remainder 19
of such excess amount toward the 20
monthly payment amount due for 21
the third subsequent month; 22
‘‘(V) if the excess amount is 23
equal to the monthly payment 24
amounts due for the 3 subsequent 25
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months on such loan, treat the excess 1
amount as the monthly payments for 2
such months; 3
‘‘(VI) if the excess amount is 4
greater than the monthly payment 5
amounts due for the 3 subsequent 6
months on such loan— 7
‘‘(aa) treat the portion of 8
the excess amount that covers 9
the monthly payment amounts 10
due for the 3 subsequent months 11
as the monthly payments for 12
such months; and 13
‘‘(bb) apply any remainder 14
of such excess amount to the 15
principal balance of the eligible 16
Federal Direct loan; and 17
‘‘(VII) notwithstanding sub-18
clauses (I) through (VI), if the bor-19
rower has a monthly payment amount 20
due on such loan for such month that 21
is equal to $0, apply any excess 22
amount for such month to the prin-23
cipal balance of the eligible Federal 24
Direct loan. 25
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‘‘(ii) ALTERNATIVE APPLICATION .— 1
Prior to or at the time of making a pay-2
ment that exceeds the monthly payment 3
amount due on an eligible Federal Direct 4
Loan for such month, a borrower may re-5
quest that any excess amount for such 6
month be applied to the principal balance 7
of an eligible Federal Direct loan in lieu of 8
such excess amount being applied in ac-9
cordance with clause (i). 10
‘‘(C) B
UYBACK PAYMENT PROCESS .— 11
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary 12
shall establish a buyback payment process 13
under which a qualified borrower of an eli-14
gible Federal Direct Loan may make a 15
buyback payment in order to have eligible 16
months of the borrower’s public service 17
employment period during which the bor-18
rower did not make a qualifying monthly 19
payment on such loan be treated as if the 20
borrower had made a qualifying monthly 21
payment on such loan. 22
‘‘(ii) Q
UALIFIED BORROWER .—A bor-23
rower is a qualified borrower for the pur-24
poses of making a buyback payment in ac-25
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cordance with this subparagraph if the 1
borrower— 2
‘‘(I) has an eligible Federal Di-3
rect Loan that is not in default; 4
‘‘(II) has been employed in a 5
public service job for not less than a 6
96 month employment period, but 7
during such employment period has 8
made fewer than 96 qualifying month-9
ly payments on an eligible Federal Di-10
rect Loan; and 11
‘‘(III) requests to make a 12
buyback payment in accordance with 13
this subparagraph. 14
‘‘(iii) E
LIGIBLE MONTH .—For the 15
purposes of this subparagraph, an eligible 16
month means a month during which a 17
qualified borrower was employed in a pub-18
lic service job, was not in an in-school 19
deferment or grace period, and did not 20
make a qualifying monthly payment on an 21
eligible Federal Direct Loan for such 22
month— 23
‘‘(I) because the borrower made a 24
monthly payment on such eligible 25
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Federal Direct Loan pursuant to a re-1
payment plan that is not a qualifying 2
repayment plan; 3
‘‘(II) because the borrower was 4
in a period of deferment or forbear-5
ance other than a period described in 6
clause (ii) of subparagraph (A); or 7
‘‘(III) for another reason deter-8
mined appropriate by the Secretary. 9
‘‘(iv) B
UYBACK PAYMENT REQUIRE -10
MENTS.—A buyback payment made in ac-11
cordance with this subparagraph— 12
‘‘(I) shall be made by a qualified 13
borrower as a lump sum payment 14
amount, and in an amount that equals 15
the total amount the borrower would 16
have paid in qualifying monthly pay-17
ments on the eligible Federal Direct 18
Loan for all eligible months the bor-19
rower is requesting to buyback, pursu-20
ant to a qualifying repayment plan 21
applicable to the borrower, in accord-22
ance with section 685.219(g)(6) of 23
title 34, Code of Federal Regulations 24
(as such section is in effect on the 25
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date of enactment of this paragraph) 1
or any other relevant regulations in 2
effect on such date; 3
‘‘(II) may not be made with re-4
spect to an eligible Federal Direct 5
Loan that has been paid off, dis-6
charged, or cancelled; and 7
‘‘(III) with respect to an eligible 8
Federal Direct Loan that is a consoli-9
dation loan, may not be used to 10
buyback eligible months that occurred 11
before the date of the consolidation of 12
such loan. 13
‘‘(D) H
OLD HARMLESS AGAINST RETRO -14
ACTIVE DETERMINATIONS .—For purposes of 15
determining under paragraph (1) the number of 16
qualifying monthly payments made by a bor-17
rower, any payment or period of deferment or 18
forbearance that is determined to be a quali-19
fying monthly payment may not, at a later 20
time, be determined not to be a qualifying 21
monthly payment.’’; and 22
(2) in paragraph (6), as redesignated by section 23
2(b), by adding at the end the following: 24
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‘‘(C) QUALIFYING REPAYMENT PLAN .— 1
The term ‘qualifying repayment plan’ means 2
any of the repayment plans listed in clause (i) 3
of paragraph (2)(A).’’. 4
(d) L
OANCANCELLATION.—Paragraph (3) of section 5
455(m) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6
1087e(m)), as redesignated by subsection (b), is amended 7
to read as follows: 8
‘‘(3) L
OAN CANCELLATION AMOUNT .—Upon 9
certification by a borrower of completion of 96 quali-10
fying monthly payments by the borrower, the Sec-11
retary shall determine whether the borrower meets 12
each of the requirements of paragraph (1), and— 13
‘‘(A) if the Secretary determines that the 14
borrower does meet such requirements, cancel 15
the obligation to repay the balance of principal 16
and interest due as of the time of such cancella-17
tion on the eligible Federal Direct Loans made 18
to the borrower under this part, without further 19
action by the borrower; or 20
‘‘(B) if the Secretary determines that the 21
borrower does not meet such requirements, no-22
tify the borrower of such determination in ac-23
cordance with paragraph (4).’’. 24
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(e) RECONSIDERATIONPROCESS.—Section 455(m) of 1
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(m)), 2
as redesignated by subsection (b), is further amended by 3
inserting after paragraph (3), as so amended, the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘(4) I
NITIAL DETERMINATION OF INELIGI -6
BILITY FOR LOAN CANCELLATION .—In a case in 7
which the Secretary determines that a borrower has 8
not met the requirements of paragraph (1), the Sec-9
retary shall— 10
‘‘(A) notify the borrower that— 11
‘‘(i) the borrower’s application has 12
been denied, including the basis for such 13
denial; 14
‘‘(ii) the borrower is in a 90-day for-15
bearance period described in subparagraph 16
(B); and 17
‘‘(iii) the Secretary will resume collec-18
tion of the eligible Federal Direct Loans 19
for which the borrower was seeking loan 20
cancellation under this subsection after 21
such 90-day forbearance period, unless the 22
borrower opts to extend such forbearance 23
period under paragraph (5)(A)(ii); and 24
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‘‘(B) grant the borrower a 90-day forbear-1
ance period, beginning on the date of the notice 2
described in subparagraph (A) provided to the 3
borrower, and during which— 4
‘‘(i) payments of principal and inter-5
est need not be made on the eligible Fed-6
eral Direct Loans for which the borrower 7
was seeking loan cancellation under this 8
subsection; and 9
‘‘(ii) any interest accrued and not 10
paid may not be capitalized. 11
‘‘(5) R
ECONSIDERATION PROCESS .— 12
‘‘(A) R
EQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION .— 13
Not later than 90 days after the date of the no-14
tice described in paragraph (4)(A) provided to 15
the borrower— 16
‘‘(i) the borrower may request, on a 17
form approved by the Secretary, that the 18
Secretary reconsider the basis for the Sec-19
retary’s denial under paragraph (4)(A)(i); 20
and 21
‘‘(ii) if the Secretary grants the bor-22
rower’s reconsideration request, offer the 23
borrower an extension of the 90-day for-24
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bearance period described in paragraph 1
(4)(B), which shall— 2
‘‘(I) begin on the date of the bor-3
rower’s reconsideration request under 4
this subparagraph; and 5
‘‘(II) end on the date of the no-6
tice provided to the borrower under 7
subparagraph (C)(i)(I) of the Sec-8
retary’s reconsideration decision. 9
‘‘(B) C
ONSIDERATION OF RECONSIDER -10
ATION REQUEST.—In evaluating a reconsider-11
ation request from a borrower, the Secretary 12
shall consider any relevant evidence or sup-13
porting documentation that may assist the Sec-14
retary in determining whether the borrower 15
meets each of the requirements of paragraph 16
(1) to qualify for loan cancellation under this 17
subsection. 18
‘‘(C) D
ECISION BY THE SECRETARY .— 19
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 6 20
months after receipt of a borrower’s recon-21
sideration request, the Secretary shall— 22
‘‘(I) notify the borrower of the 23
reconsideration decision and the rea-24
son for the Secretary’s determination; 25
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‘‘(II) in a case in which the re-1
consideration request is granted, ad-2
just the borrower’s number of quali-3
fying monthly payments under para-4
graph (1) or cancel the loan under 5
paragraph (3); and 6
‘‘(III) in a case in which the Sec-7
retary denies the reconsideration re-8
quest, with respect to a borrower who 9
agrees to the forbearance extension 10
described in subparagraph (A)(ii), in-11
clude in the notice provided to the 12
borrower under subclause (I), a re-13
minder that the Secretary will resume 14
collection of the eligible Federal Di-15
rect Loans for which the borrower 16
was seeking loan cancellation under 17
this subsection as of the date of such 18
notice. 19
‘‘(ii) F
INAL DECISION.—After the 20
Secretary makes a decision on the bor-21
rower’s reconsideration request, the Sec-22
retary’s decision is final, and the borrower 23
will not receive additional reconsider-24
ation.’’. 25
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SEC. 3. TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT. 1
(a) I
NDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS.—Section 455(m) 2
is further amended by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(8) T
REATMENT OF INDEPENDENT CONTRAC -4
TORS.—For purposes of this subsection, each ref-5
erence to ‘employment’ and ‘employed’ shall be 6
treated as including work as an independent con-7
tractor.’’. 8
(b) D
EFINITIONS.—Paragraph (6) of section 455(m) 9
of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 10
1087e(m)), as redesignated by section 2(b), is further 11
amended by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(D) F
ULL-TIME.—The term ‘full-time’ 13
means, with respect to a public service job, 14
working 1 or more such jobs— 15
‘‘(i) a minimum average of 30 hours 16
per week during the period being certified; 17
‘‘(ii) a minimum of 30 hours per week 18
throughout a contractual or employment 19
period of at least 8 months in a 12-month 20
period; and 21
‘‘(iii) with respect to an individual 22
who is in nontenure track employment at 23
an institution of higher education, the 24
equivalent of 30 hours per week as deter-25
mined by multiplying each credit or con-26
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tact hour taught by such individual per 1
week by a number to be determined by the 2
Secretary. 3
‘‘(E) I
NDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR .—The 4
term ‘independent contractor’ means an indi-5
vidual who is not an employee and who is work-6
ing in a public service job in a position or pro-7
viding services which, under applicable State 8
law, cannot be filled or provided by an employee 9
of the public service job.’’. 10
SEC. 4. ONLINE PORTAL AND DATABASE OF PUBLIC SERV-11
ICE JOBS. 12
Section 455(m) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 13
is further amended by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(9) O
NLINE PORTAL AND DATABASE OF PUB -15
LIC SERVICE JOBS.— 16
‘‘(A) O
NLINE PORTAL.— 17
‘‘(i) B
ORROWERS.—The Secretary 18
shall establish an online portal that pro-19
vides to borrowers of eligible Federal Di-20
rect Loans the following information: 21
‘‘(I) Instructions on how to ac-22
cess the database established under 23
subparagraph (B) so that the bor-24
rower can determine whether the bor-25
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rower is employed in a public service 1
job. 2
‘‘(II) An identification of the 3
loans of the borrower that are eligible 4
Federal Direct Loans, and an identi-5
fication of the qualifying repayment 6
plans for which such eligible Federal 7
Direct Loans qualify. 8
‘‘(III) With respect to each such 9
eligible Federal Direct Loan— 10
‘‘(aa) the number of quali-11
fying monthly payments the bor-12
rower has made in accordance 13
with paragraph (1); and 14
‘‘(bb) the estimated number 15
of qualifying monthly payments 16
under such paragraph remaining 17
on such loan before the borrower 18
may be eligible for loan cancella-19
tion under this subsection. 20
‘‘(IV) With respect to each loan 21
of the borrower that is not eligible for 22
loan cancellation under paragraph (3) 23
of this subsection, an explanation of 24
why the loan is not so eligible and in-25
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structions on how what, if anything, 1
the borrower may do to make the loan 2
so eligible. 3
‘‘(V) Instructions for the submis-4
sion of any forms associated with such 5
loan cancellation, and an ability for 6
the borrower to use the portal to elec-7
tronically sign and submit such forms. 8
‘‘(VI) In a case in which a bor-9
rower submits to the Secretary an ap-10
plication for loan cancellation under 11
this subsection that is denied by the 12
Secretary— 13
‘‘(aa) a notice of such denial 14
that meets each of the require-15
ments of paragraph (4)(A), in-16
cluding an explanation of the 90- 17
day forbearance period; 18
‘‘(bb) a form that meets 19
each of the requirements of para-20
graph (5)(A), which the borrower 21
may use to request reconsider-22
ation of such denial, including 23
accepting an extension of the 90- 24
day forbearance period; and 25
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‘‘(cc) a notice of the Sec-1
retary’s reconsideration decision, 2
which meets each of the require-3
ments of paragraph (5)(C). 4
‘‘(VII) An explanation of the 5
buyback payment process described in 6
paragraph (2)(C), and a form to re-7
quest such a buyback, including the 8
eligible months for which the borrower 9
may request a buyback, and the 10
amount that the borrower would be 11
required to pay for such buyback. 12
‘‘(VIII) An explanation of how 13
consolidating one or more Direct 14
Loans into a Direct Consolidation 15
Loan, including a Direct PLUS Loan 16
made to a parent borrower, will affect 17
the number of qualifying monthly pay-18
ments attributed to the borrower. 19
‘‘(ii) A
PPROPRIATE CONTACTS .—The 20
Secretary shall ensure that an appropriate 21
contact for a public service job of a bor-22
rower has the option to electronically sign 23
and submit any forms associated with loan 24
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cancellation under paragraph (3) of this 1
subsection. 2
‘‘(iii) I
NFORMATION.—The Secretary 3
shall ensure that any information provided 4
through the online portal described in this 5
subparagraph contains up-to-date informa-6
tion. 7
‘‘(B) D
ATABASE OF PUBLIC SERVICE 8
JOBS.— 9
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary, in 10
consultation with the Secretary of Labor, 11
shall establish and regularly update a data-12
base that lists public service jobs. 13
‘‘(ii) P
UBLIC AVAILABILITY .—The 14
database established under clause (i) shall 15
be made available on a publicly accessible 16
website of the Department of Education in 17
an easily searchable format.’’. 18
SEC. 5. TREATMENT OF PERIODS OF DEFERMENT AND FOR-19
BEARANCE. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 455(f) of the Higher Edu-21
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(f)) is amended— 22
(1) in the subsection heading, by inserting 23
‘‘
ANDFORBEARANCE’’ at the end; 24
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(2) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ‘‘capital-1
ized or’’; and 2
(3) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(7) F
ORBEARANCE.—With respect to a loan 4
that is in a period of forbearance, interest on such 5
loan may not be capitalized after the conclusion of 6
such period.’’. 7
(b) A
PPLICATION OF AMENDMENT.—The amend-8
ments made by subsection (a) shall apply to any period 9
of deferment or forbearance in effect as of the date of the 10
enactment of this Act, and any period of deferment or for-11
bearance beginning on or after such date of enactment. 12
SEC. 6. TREATMENT OF CONSOLIDATED AND REFINANCED 13
LOANS. 14
Section 455(m)(2) of the Higher Education Act of 15
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(m)(2), as amended by the pre-16
ceding provisions of this Act, is further amended by insert-17
ing after subparagraph (D) the following: 18
‘‘(E) D
ETERMINATION OF NUMBER OF 19
QUALIFYING MONTHLY PAYMENTS FOR CON -20
SOLIDATION LOANS.—With respect to deter-21
mining the number of qualifying monthly pay-22
ments for a borrower seeking loan forgiveness 23
under this subsection who consolidates one or 24
more Direct Loans into a Direct Consolidation 25
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Loan, including a Direct PLUS Loan made to 1
a parent borrower, the Secretary shall use the 2
weighted average of the payments the borrower 3
made on the Direct Loans prior to consoli-4
dating that met the criteria under this sub-5
section.’’. 6
SEC. 7. LOAN FORGIVENESS FOR TEACHERS. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Higher Education Act of 8
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.) is further amended— 9
(1) in section 428J(g)(2) (20 U.S.C. 1078– 10
10(g)(2))— 11
(A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘or’’ 12
after the semicolon at the end; 13
(B) by striking subparagraph (B); and 14
(C) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as 15
subparagraph (B); and 16
(2) in section 460(g)(2) (20 U.S.C. 17
1087j(g)(2))— 18
(A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘or’’ 19
after the semicolon at the end; 20
(B) by striking subparagraph (B); and 21
(C) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as 22
subparagraph (B). 23
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 455(m)(7) 24
of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as redesignated by 25
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section 2(b) of this Act, is amended by striking ‘‘section 1
428J, 428K, 428L, or 460’’ and inserting ‘‘section 428K 2
or 428L’’. 3
SEC. 8. GAO STUDY ON DATA MATCHING AGREEMENTS FOR 4
PUBLIC SERVICE LOAN FORGIVENESS. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Comptroller General of the 6
United States shall conduct a study on the feasibility of 7
establishing data matching agreements for public service 8
loan forgiveness under section 455(m) of the Higher Edu-9
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(m)) that would allow 10
a borrower to forego requesting certification of employ-11
ment from the appropriate contact for the public service 12
job of the borrower. The study shall include an examina-13
tion of the Department of Education and the Department 14
of Defense’s progress towards automatic data matching 15
for military and veteran borrowers. 16
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 17
of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall 18
submit a report to the Committee on Education and 19
Workforce of the House of Representatives and the Com-20
mittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the 21
Senate containing the findings and recommendations re-22
sulting from the study required under subsection (a). 23
(c) C
OOPERATION.—The head of each relevant Fed-24
eral agency, including the Secretary of Education, Sec-25
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retary of Defense, and Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1
shall cooperate with the Comptroller General to facilitate 2
the completion of the study required under subsection (a). 3
Æ
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