I 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4845 

To amend the student loan forgiveness program in the Higher Education 

Act of 1965 to include a greater number of disabled veterans and 

to facilitate the automatic transfer to the Secretary of Education of 

information regarding veterans eligible for student loan forgiveness, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 23, 2016 

Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York (for himself and Mr. BARLETTA) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 

Education and the Workforce 

A BILL 

To amend the student loan forgiveness program in the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include a greater number 

of disabled veterans and to facilitate the automatic transfer to the Secretary of Education of information regarding veterans eligible for student loan forgiveness, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Disabled Veterans Stu5 dent Loan Protection Act of 2016’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY DETERMINA2 TIONS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 437(a) of the Higher 

4 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087(a)) is amended 

5 by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the following: 

6 ‘‘(2) SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY DETER7 MINATIONS.— 

8 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A borrower who has 

9 been determined to be unemployable by the Sec10 retary of Veterans Affairs or has been assigned 

11 a disability rating of 100 percent (or a com12 bination of ratings equaling 100 percent) by the 

13 Secretary of Veterans Affairs or the Secretary 

14 of Defense for a service-connected disability (as 

15 defined in section 101 of title 38, United States 

16 Code), regardless of whether such borrower pro17 vides documentation of such rating to the Sec18 retary of Education, shall be considered perma19 nently and totally disabled for the purpose of 

20 discharging such borrower’s loans under this 

21 subsection, and such borrower shall not be re22 quired to present any additional documentation 

23 for purposes of this subsection. 

24 ‘‘(B) RATING OF DISABILITY.—A deter25 mination of unemployability or disability rating 

26 of 100 percent described in subparagraph (A) 


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1 and transmitted in accordance with subpara2 graph (C) shall be considered sufficient docu3 mentation for purposes of this subsection. 

4 ‘‘(C) TRANSFER OF INFORMATION.—Not 

5 later than 180 days after the date of enactment 

6 of this paragraph, the Secretary of Education, 

7 in coordination with the Secretary of Defense 

8 and the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, shall cre9 ate a system through which the applicable dis10 ability ratings, or alternative means of trans11 mitting a determination of unemployability, 

12 made before, on, or after the date of enactment 

13 of this paragraph, shall be automatically trans14 mitted from the Department of Defense or the 

15 Department of Veterans Affairs, as the case 

16 may be, to the Department of Education and 

17 shall satisfy the documentation requirement de18 scribed in this subparagraph. The Secretaries 

19 shall have the authority to enter into any agree20 ments necessary to implement the requirements 

21 of this subparagraph. 

22 ‘‘(D) NOTIFICATION TO BORROWERS.—The 

23 Secretary of Education shall notify each bor24 rower whose liability on a loan has been disVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:53 Mar 24, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4845.IH H4845

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1 charged under this subsection that such loan 

2 has been discharged.’’. 

3 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

4 this section shall take effect on the date that is 60 days 

5 after the date of enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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