I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1859 
To make careers in public service more feasible for students who graduate 
with high educational loan debt. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 26, 2005 
Mr. RENZI introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To make careers in public service more feasible for students 
who graduate with high educational loan debt. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Education for Public 
Service Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Nation benefits greatly from the con-
tributions of persons who obtain higher education, 
including graduate and professional degrees, and
then devote much of their careers to public service. 
High educational debt is an impediment that dis-
courages borrowers from pursuing low-paying public 
service employment. 
(2) In 1993, Congress created the income-con-
tingent loan repayment option to help high-debt bor-
rowers to have lower-paying public service careers. 
(3) This plan has not yet succeeded in removing 
the barriers to public service created by high edu-
cational debt. The principal problem is that bor-
rowers who elect this option do not receive debt for-
giveness until they have been paying for 25 years. 
Graduates are unable to contemplate such a long pe-
riod of repayment before their educational debts are 
forgiven. Many of them expect to be helping to pay 
for their children’s education within that period. 
(4) The goal of income-contingent repayment 
can be better achieved by reducing the option’s pe-
riod of loan repayment and forgiveness so that pub-
lic service professionals will not be forced to continue 
repaying their debt for 25 years after completion of 
graduate school. 
(5) Some borrowers are discouraged from using 
the income-continent repayment option because it in-
cludes a severe ‘‘marriage penalty’’. It attributes the
incomes of both spouses to each borrower spouse, so 
that when a borrower marries, the amount of repay-
ment due under the option is vastly increased. The 
option can be made more equitable by attributing 
only half of the income of a couple to each spouse. 
(6) Making adjustments to the income-contin-
gent repayment option will improve access to higher 
education opportunities and will enable more grad-
uates to work in public service. 
SEC. 3. STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 455(d) of the Higher 
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(d)(1)(D)) is 
amended— 
(1) in paragraph (1)(D), by inserting ‘‘and sub-
ject to paragraph (6)’’ after ‘‘prescribed by the Sec-
retary’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph: 
‘‘(6) MAXIMUM REPAYMENT PERIOD FOR PUB-
LIC SERVICE EMPLOYEES.— 
‘‘(A) SHORTENED PERIOD IN RECOGNITION 
OF
SERVICE.—For purposes of paragraph 
(1)(D), in the case of borrowers who, after 
electing to repay a loan on the income contin-
gent repayment plan, have been employed by a
qualified public service employer, whether or 
not continuously, for at least eight years on a 
full-time basis, the extended period of time pre-
scribed by the Secretary shall not exceed 15 
years. 
‘‘(B) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this 
paragraph, the term ‘qualified public service 
employer’ means any State, local government, 
Federal agency, or other organization (as such 
terms are defined by section 3371 of title 5, 
United States Code), any other office or entity 
of the legislative branch, and any employer that 
is exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(3) 
or section 501(c)(4) of title 26, United States 
Code.’’. 
(b) REPAYMENT SCHEDULES FOR MARRIED BOR-
ROWERS.—Section 455(e)(2) of the Higher Education Act 
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(e)(2)) is amended by— 
(1) by striking ‘‘, or, if the borrower’’ and all 
that follows and inserting a period; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: ‘‘If the 
borrower is married, one-half of the combined ad-
justed gross income of the borrower and of the bor-
rower’s spouse shall be attributed to the borrower.’’. 
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