Trump proposes to repeal civil service loan forgiveness – can he do it?

President Trump proposed reduce spending on student loans to the Department of Education by $ 5.6 billion. The proposed cuts include the repeal of the popular (but poorly administered) civil service loan forgiveness program.

The forgiveness of public service loans allows some federal student loan borrowers to obtain forgiveness of their loans after 10 years of qualifying payments. A “qualifying payment” is a payment made on a direct federal student loan under an income-based repayment plan, while the borrower is employed full-time by a public or non-profit organization.

While the program was plagued by bureaucratic and administrative problems (in some cases because of the actions of the Trump administration), public service loan remission actually works for borrowers, and has inspired millions of graduates to dedicate their careers to public service.

President Trump has called for the repeal of the civil service loan forgiveness program as part of his 2021 budget proposal. The budget proposals, however, are just that – proposals. The White House has no constitutional authority to pass a budget; only Congress has that authority.

In addition, to become law, this proposal to repeal the forgiveness of public service loans would have to be passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. A repeal of the program has virtually no chance of getting past the House, where Democrats currently hold a majority.

The budget plan to repeal public service loan forgiveness is similar to President Trump’s previous proposals. In reality, he proposed a similar throwback in 2017, when Republicans controlled the House, Senate and White House. Even with full one-party control over the legislative and executive branches of government, no repeal of the forgiveness of public service loans has come close.

For now, the public service loan pardon is intact and secure, despite President Trump’s proposal. But with the White House and Congress up for grabs in the upcoming 2020 election, anything is possible (in theory, at least) in the years to come. Student loan borrowers must remain vigilant.