Federally Requiring Earned Education-Debt Discharges for Vets Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source