National Guard and Reserve Student Loan Fairness Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4893 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4893

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ensure that members of the 
   reserve components of the Armed Forces receive appropriate credit 
    toward public service loan forgiveness, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 5, 2025

Mr. Magaziner (for himself and Mr. Kelly of Mississippi) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
                               Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ensure that members of the 
   reserve components of the Armed Forces receive appropriate credit 
    toward public service loan forgiveness, and for other purposes.

    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 ``National Guard and Reserve Student 
Loan Fairness Act''.

SEC. 2. SPECIAL RULE FOR MEMBERS OF THE RESERVE COMPONENTS OF THE ARMED 
              FORCES PERFORMING CERTAIN DUTY.

    Section 455(m) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1087e(m)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(5) Special rule for members of the reserve components of 
        the armed forces performing certain duty.--
                    ``(A) Calculation of qualifying payments based on 
                years of service creditable toward retired pay.--With 
                respect to a borrower who is a member of a reserve 
                component of an Armed Force, the Secretary shall--
                            ``(i) in the case of a member who completed 
                        a full year of covered service, deem each month 
                        in such year to be a month for which a 
                        qualifying payment was made under paragraph (1) 
                        if--
                                    ``(I) for each such month the 
                                borrower made a corresponding monthly 
                                payment on an eligible Federal Direct 
                                Loan; and
                                    ``(II) such corresponding monthly 
                                payment--
                                            ``(aa) met the requirements 
                                        of paragraph (1); or
                                            ``(bb) in the case of a 
                                        borrower not employed full-time 
                                        in a public service job at the 
                                        time the payment was made, such 
                                        payment would have met the 
                                        requirements of paragraph (1) 
                                        had the borrower been employed 
                                        full-time in a public service 
                                        job at the time of such 
                                        payment.
                            ``(ii) in the case of a member who 
                        completed a partial year of covered service, 
                        deem up to six months in such year to be a 
                        month for which a qualifying payment was made 
                        if--
                                    ``(I) for each such month the 
                                borrower made a corresponding monthly 
                                payment on an eligible Federal Direct 
                                Loan; and
                                    ``(II) such corresponding monthly 
                                payment--
                                            ``(aa) met the requirements 
                                        of paragraph (1); or
                                            ``(bb) in the case of a 
                                        borrower not employed full-time 
                                        in a public service job at the 
                                        time the payment was made, such 
                                        payment would have met the 
                                        requirements of paragraph (1) 
                                        had the borrower been employed 
                                        full-time in a public service 
                                        job at the time of such 
                                        payment.
                    ``(B) Data matching required.--Not later than one 
                year after the date of the enactment of this paragraph, 
                and on an annual basis thereafter, the Secretary of 
                Defense and the Secretary of Education shall jointly 
                complete a data matching process--
                            ``(i) to identify each individual who, 
                        while serving member of a reserve component of 
                        an Armed Force, made one or more student loan 
                        payments eligible to be counted under this 
                        paragraph; and
                            ``(ii) without requiring further 
                        information or action from such individual--
                                    ``(I) to certify the total number 
                                of full or partial years of covered 
                                service of such individual; and
                                    ``(II) to count the total number of 
                                qualifying payments made by the 
                                individual during such years.
                    ``(C) Definitions.--In this paragraph:
                            ``(i) The term `full year of covered 
                        service' means any year for which a member of a 
                        reserve component of an Armed Force was 
                        credited at least 80 points toward eligibility 
                        for retired pay under section 12732(a)(2) of 
                        title 10, United States Code.
                            ``(ii) The term `partial year of covered 
                        service' means any year for which a member of a 
                        reserve component of an Armed Force was 
                        credited at least 50 but less than 80 points 
                        toward eligibility for retired pay under 
                        section 12732(a)(2) of title 10, United States 
                        Code.
                            ``(iii) The term `Armed Force' has the 
                        meaning given that term in section 101 of title 
                        10, United States Code.''.
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