Congress·In Committee·H.R. 5843

Shutdown Student Loans for Feds Act

Student Loans: Payment Relief During Government Shutdowns

5 months ago·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

This bill was recently introduced and is currently being reviewed by the House Committee on Education and Workforce. It is in the early stages of the lawmaking process and has no upcoming votes scheduled at this time. The bill is considered active as it waits for the committee to decide on its next steps.

Passage Likelihood

25%Unlikely

This bill was introduced by a member of the minority party and has not yet gained support from the opposing party. Most bills like this stay in committee and never reach a full vote.

·Introduced and referred to committee
·Focuses on federal workforce
·Partisan sponsorship
·No companion bill in the Senate yet

Legislative Progress

House

Senate

President

Law

Key Points

This bill would pause federal student loan payments for government employees and contractors if a government shutdown lasts for at least 14 days. It is designed to help people who are working without pay or are sent home during budget fights.
While payments are paused, interest would not grow on the loans. This prevents workers from being penalized with extra debt because they were not receiving their normal paychecks during a shutdown.
The time spent in the pause would still count toward loan forgiveness programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness. This ensures that a shutdown does not delay a worker's path to being debt free.
To protect workers' financial reputations, the bill requires that these paused payments be reported to credit bureaus as if they were made on time. This helps prevent a shutdown from damaging a worker's credit score.