Sponsors (5)
This bill extends federal student-loan benefits to volunteer firefighters and EMTs—helping borrowers and aiding recruitment—at the cost of added federal expense and administrative complexity, with uneven access possible depending on verification rules and hour thresholds.
Student borrowers who serve as volunteer firefighters or EMTs can count that service toward federal student loan forgiveness or income-driven repayment eligibility, reducing their loan balances or accelerating forgiveness.
Volunteer first responders and the communities they serve gain formal recognition of unpaid emergency service as qualifying public service, creating clearer pathways to benefits and supporting recruitment/retention for rural communities and local governments.
Borrowers, volunteer organizations, and schools get a standardized verification process to document qualifying service, reducing disputes and providing clearer, more consistent eligibility determinations.
Taxpayers could face higher federal costs if a large number of volunteers qualify for loan forgiveness or income-driven repayment benefits.
Volunteer organizations and local governments may incur new administrative and compliance costs to track, verify, and certify volunteer hours for federal loan programs.
Minimum-hour thresholds and exclusions (for example, excluding full-time employees or setting high volunteer-hour requirements) could leave some volunteers ineligible and create uncertainty or uneven access to benefits across organizations.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Allows qualified volunteer firefighters and volunteer EMTs to count verified volunteer service as full‑time public service for federal student loan forgiveness and directs Education Dept. to set time thresholds and verification rules.
Introduced May 1, 2025 by Daniel Goldman · Last progress May 1, 2025
Adds qualified volunteer firefighters and qualified volunteer emergency medical technicians to the definition of public service employment used for federal student loan forgiveness, allowing certain volunteer hours to count as full-time service for loan discharge or forgiveness programs. Directs the Department of Education to set a minimum volunteer-time threshold (no less than each organization’s active membership requirement), define the covered volunteer roles and public safety organizations, and create rules and a verification process for tracking volunteer time.