Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), joined Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) to introduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to overturn a final rule by the Trump Administration to politicize and destabilize the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program by allowing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to limit eligibility and disqualify certain public service employers—a clear attempt to intimidate and punish certain organizations. A companion resolution has been introduced in the U.S. House by Representatives Joe Courtney (D, CT-02), Alma Adams (D, NC-12), and Scott Peters (D, CA-50).
Once the senators collect 30 signatures from their colleagues in support of their resolution, it can be called up for a vote on the Senate floor by any one senator within 60 session days. It needs a simple majority to pass.
“Trump broke PSLF during his first term so that it was functionally nonexistent—denying countless American public servants the benefits they were owed,” said Senator Patty Murray. “It is outrageous that Donald Trump is once again weaponizing the Department of Education to execute his extreme agenda. Americansthat dedicate their lives to serving their neighbors should not have to worry about whether our government is going to hold up its end of the bargain. Trump is blatantly trying to cheat public service workers—I am pushing for Congress to repeal this corrupt rule as soon as possible.”
“Americans benefit from highly qualified teachers, firefighters, nonprofit hospital staff, social workers, and other critical public servants,” said Kaine. “But now the Department of Education wants to turn those incredible people into pawns in the Trump Administration’s ridiculous, politically motivated crusades. That’s unfair to the millions of Americans who have dedicated their careers to serving their fellow citizens and is a direct threat to the quality of the services our communities rely on. I’m proud to join my colleagues in leading an effort to protect the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program from needless and dangerous politicization.”
The Trump Administration’s new rule would undermine the intent of the program. Specifically, the Trump Administration’s changes would:
- Politicize and destabilize the PSLF program, by allowing Secretary McMahon to limit eligibility based on a nonprofit’s mission or perceived ideological alignment, making the program vulnerable to shifting political priorities under any future administration.
- Grant overly broad and subjective discretion to the Department of Education, by permitting disqualification of employers deemed to have a “substantial illegal purpose”—an undefined and subjective standard that invites arbitrary and inconsistent enforcement.
- Target marginalized communities and the nonprofits that serve them.
- Discourage public service careers and weaken the nonprofit workforce.
As a senior member and former chair of the HELP Committee, Senator Murray has helped lead the charge to make the student loan system work better for students and families and lower the cost of college. She has fought to fix the PSLF program so that it works for borrowers and actually gets relief to public servants who have earned it. The program was created in 2007 under President Bush. Under Trump’s first administration, nearly 99% of all applications for PSLF were rejected—denying borrowers relief they were entitled to. At the end of the first Trump Administration, only7,000 borrowers had received student loan debt relief through PSLF. Senator Murray urged the Biden-Harris administration to take a series of steps to fix the broken student loan system—including by fixing the issues with PSLF that impacted public servants relief. Murray worked closely with the Biden-Harris Administration to fix these implementation problems and during the Biden-Harris Administration, over one million student loan borrowers had their loan balances forgiven through PSLF.
The Senate resolution is cosponsored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Chris Coons (D-DE), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Edward J. Markey (D-MD), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
The legislation is supported by AccessLex Institute, AFL-CIO, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Association of University Women (AAUW), American Bar Association (ABA), American Federation of Teachers: Education, Healthcare, Public Services, Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), Debt Collective, EdTrust, Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG), Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Legal Defense Fund, National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), National Association of Social Workers (NASW), National Education Association (NEA), National Immigration Law Center (NILC), National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), NextGen California, Protect Borrowers, PSLF Coalition, SEIU, Student Debit Crisis Center, Student Veterans of America (SVA), The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS), The National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), UnidosUS, and Young Invincibles.
The full text of the legislation is available HERE.
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