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  • 2011-01-02 (xsd:date)
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  • Are Congressional Staffers and Family Members Exempt from Repaying Student Loans? (en)
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  • Various statements circulated on the Internet over the years have claimed that all staffers working for members of Congress are automatically exempted from having to repay their student loan obligations: These statements have sometimes been garbled into similar claims that staffers of Congress family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans, children of Congress members do not have to pay back their college student loans, or simply congressional family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. However, no law or program automatically exempts all congressional staffers or congressional family members from having to repay their student loan obligations. The claim that all such persons are so exempted is based upon a misunderstanding of one particular federal employment program which provides some federal employees assistance in paying back student loans up to a certain amount, depending upon income level, length of employment, and other requirements. The claim references the Federal Student Loan Repayment Program, which is essentially a discretionary benefit that can be offered by federal agencies to select employees as an aid in hiring and retaining qualified personnel for some important and hard-to-fill positions. The program has been used by many different federal government agencies (not just Congress), it does not apply to everyone who works for those agencies, and it does not forgive student loans in full. As noted in the page describing the Federal Student Loan Repayment Program on the website of the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM), federal agencies have discretion to make student loan payments -- up to certain limits -- on behalf of employees as a recruitment or retention incentive: A 2009 press release issued by the OPM about the student loan repayment program note that it was intended to make the compensation for positions public service more competitive with those of jobs in private industry: According to the OPM's 2016 annual report on the Federal Student Loan Repayment Program for calendar year (CY) 2016, in that year 34 different federal agencies paid upwards of $71.6 million to provide student loan payments on behalf of 9,868 employees, primarily those with scientific and engineering skills. The report also noted that the agencies making the most extensive use of student loan repayments did not include Congress but rather comprised the Departments of Defense, Justice, State, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, who between them accounted for over 88% of such expenditures: The Federal Student Loan Repayment Program applies only to employees of federal agencies. It does not cover loans made to their children or other family members, and it does not provide student loan benefits to congressional family members. (en)
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