YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyTransparency & AccountabilityClears student debt for public service workers after 8 years, not 10 — and stops unpaid interest from piling up.
Your Money
The program would clear the rest of your federal Direct Loans after 96 monthly payments. Today it takes 120. Once you report hitting 96, the department would cancel the balance with no separate form.
Today the law requires you to hold a public service job on the day your loans are cancelled. That test would go away, so you would need public service work during all 96 payments, but not afterward.
Interest that piles up while your payments are on hold could not be added to what you owe. That covers all federal Direct Loans, not just public service workers. Pauses already running would count too.
Twelve kinds of paused months would count toward the 96, with no payment made. The list covers military service, job loss, hardship, cancer care, Peace Corps, and Guard duty.
If you worked in public service for at least 96 months but made fewer qualifying payments, you could pay one lump sum to have those months counted. The amount equals what you would have paid on a qualifying repayment plan.
Today the same years of teaching cannot count for both the teacher program and the public service program. That bar would be dropped. Teachers could claim both for the same years.
Work done as an independent contractor would count as employment for loan forgiveness. It applies where state law does not let the public service job be filled by an employee.
Full time would mean at least 30 hours a week on average. You could add up more than one public service job to get there. For teachers off the tenure track, credit hours taught would be turned into weekly hours.
Once a payment or paused month is treated as qualifying, the department could not later decide it does not count. That protects a count you have already been given.
If you roll Direct Loans into one new loan, the department would average the payments that counted on the old loans. A parent PLUS loan rolled in would be covered too.
A denial notice would have to give the reason. It would also start a 90-day pause with no payments due and no interest added. You could ask for one review, decided within six months, and that answer would be final.
Transparency & Accountability
The Education Department and the Labor Department would build a list of jobs that count as public service. They would keep it up to date. It would sit on a public website that anyone can search.
A new portal would show which of your loans qualify, how many qualifying payments you have made, and how many are left. You could sign and send forms there, and see why a loan does not qualify.
More about this bill
Public service workers could have their federal student loans cleared after 8 years of payments, not 10. That means jobs at government agencies and nonprofit groups. You would not need to still hold that job when the debt is cleared. Paused months would count too, such as time out for military service, job loss, cancer care, or Peace Corps work. Once you report 96 payments, the Education Department would clear the balance itself. One change would reach every borrower with a federal Direct Loan. Unpaid interest could not be added to your balance after a pause. Some months in a public service job still would not count, such as time on the wrong payment plan. You could pay a lump sum to buy those months back. Payments made before you merge loans would still count, using an average. Teachers could count the same years toward two loan programs at once. Contract workers in public service jobs would count as employed. Two part-time jobs could add up to the 30 hours a week that count as full time. The department would build a website showing how many payments you have made. It would also post a searchable list of jobs that qualify. If your request is turned down, you would get 90 days with no payments. You would also get one chance to appeal.
Congressional Summary
Strengthening Efforts for Relief and Vital Incentives for Community Service and Engagement Act or the SERVICE ActThis bill makes changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.Under the current PSLF program, the Department of Education (ED) must cancel the balance of interest and principal due on a borrower's Federal Direct Loans after the borrower makes 120 monthly loan payments while employed in a public service job and, at the time of loan forgiveness, the borrower is employed in a public service job.Among other changes to the PSLF program, this bill reduces from 120 to 96 the number of monthly payments required for loan forgiveness;expands qualifying monthly payments, deferments, and forbearances allowed under the PSLF program;removes the requirement that a borrower must be employed in a public service job at the time of loan forgiveness;establishes a reconsideration process for borrowers who have their initial PSLF application denied; andprohibits interest capitalization on loans after deferment or forbearance.The bill directs ED to (1) establish an online portal that provides borrowers with information on loans and the PSLF program, and (2) establish and regularly update a database listing public service jobs.The bill allows an eligible teacher to use the same teaching service to qualify for both the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program and the PSLF program.The Government Accountability Office must study and report on the feasibility of establishing data matching agreements for PSLF that allows borrowers to forgo requesting employment certification from their employer.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-04-10
- Date Added
- 2026-03-30
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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