Federally Requiring Earned Education-Debt Discharges for Vets Act

Floor Speech

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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 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.''.

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Mrs. LEE of Nevada. 3598, the FREED Vets Act.

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.

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.

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.

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