[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3598 Engrossed in House (EH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3598

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to automatically discharge 
    the loans of certain veteran borrowers, 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 ``Federally Requiring Earned 
Education-debt Discharges for Vets Act'' or the ``FREED Vets Act''.

SEC. 2. AUTOMATIC LOAN DISCHARGE FOR CERTAIN VETERAN BORROWERS.

    Section 437(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1087(a)) is amended--
            (1) by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the following:
            ``(2) Disability determinations.--With respect to a 
        borrower who has been identified under clause (i) or (ii) of 
        paragraph (4)(A), the Secretary shall--
                    ``(A) consider the borrower permanently and totally 
                disabled for the purpose of discharging the loans of 
                the borrower under this subsection;
                    ``(B)(i) notify the borrower of the intent of the 
                Secretary to discharge the loans of the borrower under 
                this subsection; and
                    ``(ii) only if section 108(f)(5) of the Internal 
                Revenue Code of 1986 does not apply to such a loan 
                discharge for the calendar year, include as part of 
                such notice a statement informing the borrower that 
                such loan discharge may be includible in the gross 
                income of the borrower for purposes of such Code;
                    ``(C) provide the borrower with an opportunity to 
                opt-out of such loan discharge during the 60 day period 
                beginning on the date on which the Secretary transmits 
                the notice required under subparagraph (B) to the 
                borrower; and
                    ``(D) after the expiration of such period, 
                discharge the loans of the borrower under this 
                subsection, without any further action by the borrower 
                (except that this subparagraph shall not apply to a 
                borrower who opts out of such discharge under 
                subparagraph (C)).''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(4) Matching program.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Not less than twice per year, 
                the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of 
                Veterans Affairs shall carry out a computer matching 
                program under which the Secretary of Education 
                identifies a borrower--
                            ``(i) who has been assigned a rating of 
                        total disability by the Secretary of Veterans 
                        Affairs for a service-connected disability (as 
                        defined in section 101 of title 38, United 
                        States Code); or
                            ``(ii) who has been determined by the 
                        Secretary of Veterans Affairs to be 
                        unemployable due to a service-connected 
                        condition.
                    ``(B) Minor discrepancies.--With respect to each 
                borrower who would have been identified under clause 
                (i) or (ii) of subparagraph (A) but for a minor 
                discrepancy between the information of the borrower 
                maintained by the Secretary of Education and the 
                Secretary of Veterans Affairs (such as a name 
                discrepancy post-marriage, a missing hyphen, a 
                transposed number or letter, or other typo), the 
                Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Veterans 
                Affairs shall work together to correct such minor 
                discrepancy of such borrower.''.

            Passed the House of Representatives March 10, 2020.

            Attest:

                                                                 Clerk.
116th CONGRESS

  2d Session

                               H. R. 3598

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to automatically discharge 
    the loans of certain veteran borrowers, and for other purposes.