Kaine Statement On Trump Administration Denying 99% Of Loan Forgiveness Requests Under New TEPSLF Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement on the GAO report concluding that ninety-nine percent of loan-forgiveness requests under the new Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF) program were rejected during the program’s first year, from May 2018 to May 2019:

“We created a fix to this program and provided the Trump Administration with hundreds of millions of dollars to give borrowers the loan relief they were promised, but instead they’ve left public servants in the lurch again. It’s outrageous that they still can’t get this right. The Trump Administration’s failure to implement this program is placing a huge financial burden on countless families who dedicated their careers to serving our country. I hope appropriators will direct the Education Department to implement GAO’s recommendations to ensure that our nation’s dedicated teachers, nurses, firefighters, and others get the relief they earned.” 

Kaine helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars in loan relief for public servants who had been denied due to a glitch in the original Public Service Loan Relief (PSLF) program. Congress directed the Trump Administration to create a simple process for these applicants to obtain loan forgiveness through TEPSLF, and when it became clear the Administration was failing to do so, Kaine repeatedly called on the Department of Education to fix missteps with implementation of the TEPSLF program. Kaine has urged congressional negotiators to include language in the Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations bill for the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education to ensure that Department of Education faithfully implements the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF) program. In April, Kaine introduced the What You Can Do For Your Country Act of 2019, new legislation that would overhaul the flawed PSLF program and ensure millions of teachers, social workers, members of the military, first responders, nurses, public defenders, and many other public service professionals will qualify for the loan forgiveness they have earned.  

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