National Guard and Reserve Student Loan Fairness Act

This bill helps National Guard and Reserve members get fair credit toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). It tells the Department of Education to count months during certain military service as “qualifying payments” if the borrower made their normal monthly payments on a Federal Direct Loan—even if they weren’t working full-time in a public service job at that moment. The bill is called the National Guard and Reserve Student Loan Fairness Act and adds these rules to the Higher Education Act.

Key points:

• Who is affected: Members of the reserve components of the Armed Forces (such as the National Guard and Reserves) with eligible Federal Direct Loans.
• What changes:
  • Full year of covered service: If you earn at least 80 points toward retired pay in a year, each month in that year can count toward PSLF if you made your monthly loan payments.
  • Partial year: If you earn 50–79 points, up to six months in that year can count if you made your payments.
  • Payments can count even if you weren’t working full-time in a public service job at the time, as long as the payment would have met PSLF rules if you had been.
• How it works: The Departments of Defense and Education must match data to find eligible Guard and Reserve members and count their qualifying payments automatically, without asking the borrower for more paperwork.
• When: The data-matching system must start within one year after the bill becomes law and then run every year.