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Senators back military student-loan relief

Service members carrying student loans that originated before Oct. 1, 2008, would get a 60-month reprieve from having interest accrue on their debt, under a bipartisan Senate bill.

The proposal, which builds on a student loan bill enacted last year that deferred interest on new loans, would save between $1,183 and $1,479 in interest for the typical service member over a 12- to 15-month deployment, according to congressional sponsors.

The Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act provides many types of financial protection to mobilized and deployed service members, but it does not stop interest from accumulating on older student loans. Last year, Congress provided a waiver on accrued interest for loans that originated as of Nov. 1, 2008, but provided no relief for those who already had student loan debt.

“When Americans go off to serve their country during time of war, the government should not collect interest on their student loans,” said Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., the bill’s chief sponsor.

The bill has not yet been assigned a number.

Original cosponsors include Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall of Colorado, Max Baucus of Montana, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Chuck Schumer of New York, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Also cosponsoring the bill are Joe Lieberman, the Independent Democrat from Connecticut, and Republicans James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Bennet said in a statement that deployed service members have enough to worry about when deployed withgout having to worry about shouldering “the added burden of worrying about school loans or how much more they are going to have to pay when they come home.”

Bennet serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that will consider the bill.