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 High-
er Education Act of 1965 to include a greater number 
of disabled veterans and to facilitate the automatic trans-
fer to the Secretary of Education of information regard-
ing veterans eligible for student loan forgiveness, and 
for other purposes. 
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 ‘‘Disabled Veterans Stu-
dent Loan Protection Act of 2016’’. 
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SEC. 2. SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY DETERMINA-
TIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 437(a) of the Higher 
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087(a)) is amended 
by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the following: 
‘‘(2) SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY DETER-
MINATIONS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A borrower who has 
been determined to be unemployable by the Sec-
retary of Veterans Affairs or has been assigned 
a disability rating of 100 percent (or a com-
bination of ratings equaling 100 percent) by the 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs or the Secretary 
of Defense for a service-connected disability (as 
defined in section 101 of title 38, United States 
Code), regardless of whether such borrower pro-
vides documentation of such rating to the Sec-
retary of Education, shall be considered perma-
nently and totally disabled for the purpose of 
discharging such borrower’s loans under this 
subsection, and such borrower shall not be re-
quired to present any additional documentation 
for purposes of this subsection. 
‘‘(B) RATING
OF
DISABILITY.—A deter-
mination of unemployability or disability rating 
of 100 percent described in subparagraph (A) 
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and transmitted in accordance with subpara-
graph (C) shall be considered sufficient docu-
mentation for purposes of this subsection. 
‘‘(C) TRANSFER
OF
INFORMATION.—Not 
later than 180 days after the date of enactment 
of this paragraph, the Secretary of Education, 
in coordination with the Secretary of Defense 
and the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, shall cre-
ate a system through which the applicable dis-
ability ratings, or alternative means of trans-
mitting a determination of unemployability, 
made before, on, or after the date of enactment 
of this paragraph, shall be automatically trans-
mitted from the Department of Defense or the 
Department of Veterans Affairs, as the case 
may be, to the Department of Education and 
shall satisfy the documentation requirement de-
scribed in this subparagraph. The Secretaries 
shall have the authority to enter into any agree-
ments necessary to implement the requirements 
of this subparagraph. 
‘‘(D) NOTIFICATION TO BORROWERS.—The 
Secretary of Education shall notify each bor-
rower whose liability on a loan has been dis-
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charged under this subsection that such loan 
has been discharged.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
this section shall take effect on the date that is 60 days 
after the date of enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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