OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Federally Requiring Earned Education-Debt Discharges for Vets Act

Floor Speech

Date: March 10, 2020
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Higher Education

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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.

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