118 HR 10226 IH: National Guard and Reserve Student Loan Fairness Act U.S. House of Representatives 2024-11-21 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I118th CONGRESS2d SessionH. R. 10226IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESNovember 21, 2024Mr. Magaziner (for himself and Mr. Kelly of Mississippi) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the WorkforceA BILLTo amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ensure that members of the reserve components of the Armed Forces who perform duty other than active duty for a period of more than 30 days receive appropriate credit toward public service loan forgiveness, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the National Guard and Reserve Student Loan Fairness Act.

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 a member of the reserve components of the Armed Forces performing certain duty

(A)

Calculation of qualifying payments based on months served

With respect to a borrower who is a member of a reserve component of an Armed Force, the Secretary shall deem a month of covered duty (as calculated under subparagraph (B)) to be a month for which a qualifying payment was made under paragraph (1) if—(i)except as provided in subparagraph (D)(ii), for each month of such covered duty (as so calculated), during the year in which such month occurred, the borrower made a corresponding monthly payment on an eligible Federal Direct Loan; and (ii)such corresponding monthly payment—(I)met the requirements of paragraph (1); or(II)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)

Calculation of months of covered duty

Except as provided in subparagraph (C), the number of months that a borrower described in subparagraph (A) shall be considered to have performed covered duty in a year for purposes of subparagraph (A) shall be equal to—(i)the number days the member performed covered duty in such year, divided by(ii)twenty; and(iii)rounded to the nearest whole number.(C)

Minimum period

A borrower described in subparagraph (A) who performed covered duty for a total period of less than 10 days in a year may not receive credit for a qualifying monthly payment under this paragraph.(D)

No annual cap on number of qualifying payments credited to a borrower

(i)

In general

A borrower described in subparagraph (A) may receive credit for more than 12 qualifying monthly payments in a year if each such payment qualifies to be counted under this paragraph or paragraph (1).(ii)

Exception to requirement for corresponding monthly payment

The requirement for a borrower to make a corresponding payment for each month credited as qualifying payment under this paragraph, as described in clauses (i) and (ii) of subparagraph (A), shall not apply to any qualifying payment in excess of the twelfth payment credited to a borrower for a year.(E)

Definitions

In this paragraph:(i)The term covered duty means any Federal or State duty (including inactive duty training, active duty training, and active duty) performed by a member of a reserve component of an Armed Force, except such term does not include active duty for a period of more than 30 days.(ii)The terms Armed Force and active duty for a period of more than 30 days have the meanings given those terms in section 101 of title 10, United States Code..