Shutdown Student Loans for Feds Act

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.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.