A group of lawmakers have forwarded correspondence to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, seeking insight regarding federal employees potentially receiving student loan refunds.
At issue, per the lawmakers, is the matter of student loan payments the federal government made on their behalf. Sens. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) joined eight colleagues in signing off on the letter, officials noted.
“Your agency recently released a guidance document stating that federal student loan borrowers who made repayments since March 13, 2020, will receive an automatic refund for their payments because both the requirement to make payments and the accrual of interest were paused since this time period,” the legislators wrote. “As you know, the federal government already offers generous repayment programs to its employees, which continued during the pandemic. Reports suggest roughly 2,000 Capitol Hill staffers and 10,400 executive branch employees benefit from these generous repayment plans.”
The lawmakers maintain the Department of Education’s present guidance raises the possibility that more than 12,000 federal employees benefiting from taxpayer funded repayment programs could receive direct checks to reimburse them for loan repayments already made by taxpayers.
The lawmakers have asked if the agency plans to provide a refund to any federal employees who had repayments made on their behalf by the federal government since March 13, 2020; and if a federal employee with a $20,000 federal student loan balance in March of 2020 stopped making payments at that time but continued to receive taxpayer benefits that paid their balance down to zero over the course of the pause on repayment could apply to have $20,000 refunded to them.