August 24, 2022 - Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) led a letter with 16 of her Senate colleagues to Secretary Miguel Cardona, urging the Department of Education (DOE) to take steps to implement changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program that will make it easier for military service members to access benefits. At the Senator’s urging, the Department has agreed to automatically enroll members of the military in the program before a program “waiver” to allow changes expires in October, but the required record matching has not yet been completed. The letter asks Secretary Cardona to extend the waiver deadline to permit the Department to make this and other agreed-upon changes to benefit military service members.

“In November 2021, we wrote to you calling for swift implementation of the waiver. However, it appears that the administration of the waiver has been subject to various delays, particularly as it pertains to provisions aimed at aiding military service members,” said the senators. “We request that the Department take all action possible to ensure that the data matches associated with the ongoing PSLF waiver are executed as quickly as possible, and that service members with student debt automatically secure debt relief as intended. In addition, to make certain that there is ample time for the Department to fully implement these data matches, we request that the PSLF waiver be extended. Such an extension would also help address other, more general concerns regarding possible problems in the administration of the waiver.”

Full text of the letter is available here.

Senator Cortez Masto has been a longtime supporter of the PSLF program, cosponsoring legislation to allow more Americans to qualify for public service loan forgiveness and repeatedly urging the DOE to make improvements to the program, including most recently in November of 2021.  
Source: Senator Cortez Masto