March 10, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 46 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session
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FEDERALLY REQUIRING EARNED EDUCATION-DEBT DISCHARGES FOR VETS ACT; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 46
(House of Representatives - March 10, 2020)
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[Pages H1575-H1577] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] FEDERALLY REQUIRING EARNED EDUCATION-DEBT DISCHARGES FOR VETS ACT Mrs. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3598) to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to automatically discharge the loans of certain veteran borrowers, and for other purposes, as amended. The Clerk read the title of the bill. The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 3598 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Federally Requiring Earned Education-debt Discharges for Vets Act'' or the ``FREED Vets Act''. SEC. 2. AUTOMATIC LOAN DISCHARGE FOR CERTAIN VETERAN BORROWERS. Section 437(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087(a)) is amended-- (1) by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the following: ``(2) Disability determinations.--With respect to a borrower who has been identified under clause (i) or (ii) of paragraph (4)(A), the Secretary shall-- ``(A) consider the borrower permanently and totally disabled for the purpose of discharging the loans of the borrower under this subsection; ``(B)(i) notify the borrower of the intent of the Secretary to discharge the loans of the borrower under this subsection; and ``(ii) only if section 108(f)(5) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 does not apply to such a loan discharge for the calendar year, include as part of such notice a statement informing the borrower that such loan discharge may be includible in the gross income of the borrower for purposes of such Code; ``(C) provide the borrower with an opportunity to opt-out of such loan discharge during the 60 day period beginning on the date on which the Secretary transmits the notice required under subparagraph (B) to the borrower; and ``(D) after the expiration of such period, discharge the loans of the borrower under this subsection, without any further action by the borrower (except that this subparagraph shall not apply to a borrower who opts [[Page H1576]] out of such discharge under subparagraph (C)).''; and (2) by adding at the end the following: ``(4) Matching program.-- ``(A) In general.--Not less than twice per year, the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall carry out a computer matching program under which the Secretary of Education identifies a borrower-- ``(i) who has been assigned a rating of total disability by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs for a service-connected disability (as defined in section 101 of title 38, United States Code); or ``(ii) who has been determined by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to be unemployable due to a service-connected condition. ``(B) Minor discrepancies.--With respect to each borrower who would have been identified under clause (i) or (ii) of subparagraph (A) but for a minor discrepancy between the information of the borrower maintained by the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (such as a name discrepancy post-marriage, a missing hyphen, a transposed number or letter, or other typo), the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall work together to correct such minor discrepancy of such borrower.''. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from Nevada (Mrs. Lee) and the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Watkins) each will control 20 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Nevada. General Leave Mrs. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 3598, the FREED Vets Act. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Nevada? There was no objection. Mrs. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of H.R. 3598, the Federally Requiring Earned Education-Debt Discharges for Vets Act or FREED Vets Act. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues, Conor Lamb, Brian Fitzpatrick, and all the other coleads for their work to ensure that those who have served our Nation, and are now totally and permanently disabled, do not face additional burden to get relief from their student loan debt. This legislation will improve the lives of nearly 40,000 veterans who have a service-related disability by requiring the Secretary of Education to automatically discharge their Federal student loan debt. The Higher Education Act of 1965 requires the Secretary of Education to discharge the Federal student loans of individuals who are totally and permanently disabled but does not establish a process. For too long, veterans with a service-connected disability have fallen through the cracks. Because of that, they have been forced to navigate a complicated and confusing system, while being straddled with debt. We owe our disabled veterans a better option. So, in 2018, the Department of Education launched a data-sharing initiative with the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify borrowers eligible for relief from their student loan debt. {time} 1315 In 2019, the Department of Education started to automize loan discharge for these veterans, but it has been stalled. This bill will require the Secretary to continue matching borrowers with data from Veterans Affairs to identify and automatically discharge the debt of matched individuals, eliminating burden on our veterans. These brave individuals who served our country and are now totally and permanently disabled should not have to carry the burden of their debt, especially when we have the information and the ability to eliminate all sorts of bureaucratic and, quite frankly, unnecessary red tape. I am proud to support this legislation which creates a clear process for disabled veterans to receive the relief they are entitled to under the law. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. WATKINS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3598, the Federally Requiring Earned Education-debt Discharges for Vets Act, or the FREED Vets Act. This bill would cancel student loan debt for some eligible veterans. H.R. 3598 would remove administrative obstacles preventing veterans from receiving student loan discharges. It modernizes the administration of Federal student loans, and it is a wonderful way to honor veterans. Most debate about student loans is highly contentious and very partisan, but this bill here and now is an example of Democrats and Republicans coming together for the benefit of American heroes. Last year, President Trump signed an executive order eliminating a process for disabled veterans to become eligible for loan forgiveness. Today, we are here to ensure that this effort becomes permanent. I am a veteran, and I have countless veteran friends, many of them disabled. I know this bill will matter. Our veterans could use this break after selfless service, most of whom fought in not one war, but two--or many, at least. The FREED Act is just one example of this body's commitment and America's commitment to our Nation's bravest. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mrs. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney). Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the FREED Vets Act, a bipartisan measure led by my friend Conor Lamb from Pennsylvania and Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican, from Pennsylvania, that will automatically discharge Federal student loan debt for eligible permanently disabled veterans. Mr. Speaker, there is about a trillion dollars of student loan debt overhanging the U.S. economy, and we have worked on the Education and Labor Committee to pass the College Affordability Act that would open a pathway for people who serve in public service to get that debt discharged after 10 years. This bill is, in my opinion, a great example of bipartisan agreement that there is one population that should get immediate relief, which is the men and women who have worn the uniform of this country and who have suffered grievous injury, whether it is visible or invisible, and who are 100 percent disabled. As again has been stated, the Education Department got off to a start in terms of trying to implement this type of approach. This bill just will again strengthen and support that effort to make sure that the minute the VA has identified an individual who is permanently disabled who served our Nation, that notice will go to the Education Department and the discharge will be automatic. No application process, no matching process, again, it will just happen by operation of law. The statistics show that this is a real problem. There are 42,000 veterans with student loan debt who, again, are permanently disabled, and 25,000 of those are in default. Getting this bill passed, getting this in operation as soon as possible is the most powerful way this country can say thank you, to eliminate one additional burden on people who have just shown their commitment and patriotism to our country. I congratulate the bipartisan sponsors of this bill, Mr. Lamb and Mr. Fitzpatrick, and urge all of us to come together and get this bill passed today, as soon as possible. Mrs. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Lamb), the sponsor of the bill. Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding. I thank my colleague from Kansas for his excellent support and work on this bill, as well. People often ask me when I go home to western Pennsylvania whether we ever knock off all the fighting down here and do some actual work and work across the aisle between Congress and the White House to actually get things done. What you are seeing here in this Chamber today is an example of the fact that there are many of us down here who are very serious about making that happen and making it happen more often as we go forward. The FREED Act responded to a very specific set of circumstances, which is that it has long been true that, if you are a 100 percent disabled veteran, you have your Federal student loans forgiven. But we all know there is a big difference between putting something [[Page H1577]] down on paper and making it happen in real life, and we were seeing huge numbers of disabled veterans not take advantage of this program either because they didn't know about it or because the process of applying for it was just too burdensome, there was too much paperwork, or it took too long. If you have a 100 percent disability rating, there is a lot in your life you have to worry about besides doing paperwork; so Congressman Watkins, Congressman Fitzpatrick and another great western Pennsylvanian, Congressman Guy Reschenthaler, and I were all looking at the same set of facts and said: We know what we need to do here. We already know these people have a 100 percent disability rating. Let's just make the loan forgiveness automatic. That was the genesis for this bill. I want to acknowledge that the administration and President Trump did the right thing here. They noticed this same problem last year, and they began to automatically forgive these loans by executive order. The problem was that there was some legal uncertainty about exactly who had the authority to forgive the loans how fast and when. Our understanding is that some disputes developed between OMB and the Department of Education, and it was slowing down the ability of veterans to take advantage of this thing that they are already entitled to by virtue of how much they have given to this country. So our bill was necessary to make sure that everybody involved knew they have the legal authority to forgive these loans. By this time next year, assuming we are able to get this through the Senate and to the President's desk for his signature, that number you heard from Congressman Courtney of 25,000 veterans whose loans are in default and an even higher number of tens of thousands more who haven't taken advantage of that should be zero. We are making an unequivocal statement today that, if you have given so much to this country that you have a 100 percent disability rating, you do not need to worry about your Federal student loans any longer. It is our job to remove obstacles from the paths of people who have given so much to this country. We all believe that there is much to be done on the subject of student loans, but what we want to make sure is that these brave Americans are first in line when we do that, and that is what our bill does. It is very common in America these days to hear people spot a veteran and say, ``Thank you for your service.'' I think the important thing about this bill is that it is Republicans and Democrats, Congress and the President all working together to say, ``Thank you for your service''--not only in words, but in actions. That is what this bill means. I am so grateful to have had the support of so many hardworking Members who look forward to seeing this bill pass today, and I urge all my colleagues to support it. Mr. WATKINS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick). Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, the FREED Vets Act mandates that the Department of Education automatically discharge Federal student loan debt for eligible permanently disabled veterans. The staggering student loan debt crisis harms the financial security of many Americans, including the women and men who have honorably served our Nation. Our Nation's veterans have sacrificed immensely for our freedom and our way of life, and it is unacceptable that many disabled veterans continue to be saddled with high levels of student debt. The least we can do for them, Mr. Speaker, is to forgive the Federal student loans for those who have served our country. The VA established a program in 2018 to forgive veteran student debt, but the barrier of going through the processes meant that only 20 percent of those eligible veterans received the assistance they deserved. This strong bipartisan bill makes student loan forgiveness for these vets automatic. I thank my friend, Congressman Lamb from Pennsylvania, for leading this bill, and I urge all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand with our veterans today and vote for H.R. 3598. Mr. WATKINS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I thank the President for all he has done for our veterans. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Lamb) as well as the gentlewoman from Nevada (Mrs. Lee) for all of their hard work in making this piece of legislation a reality. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 3598. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. Mrs. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. As my colleagues have heard today, this legislation would require the Department to continue ensuring that veterans who are totally and permanently disabled can have their student loan debt discharged without unnecessary complexity. Think about it, without unnecessary complexity. All this legislation does is streamline a process so those who have been totally and permanently disabled can have peace of mind and economic freedom. We owe it to those who have served our country to make this process as simple as possible, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Courtney). The question is on the motion offered by the gentlewoman from Nevada (Mrs. Lee) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3598, as amended. The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed. A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. ____________________
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