SERVICE Act
Official title: To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to improve the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and reduce interest rates.
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Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Strengthening Efforts for Relief and Vital Incentives for Community Service and Engagement Act or the SERVICE Act
This bill makes changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.
Under the current PSLF program, the Department of Education (ED) must cancel the balance of interest and principal due on a borrower's Federal Direct Loans after the borrower makes 120 monthly loan payments while employed in a public service job and, at the time of loan forgiveness, the borrower is employed in a public service job.
Among other changes to the PSLF program, this bill
- reduces from 120 to 96 the number of monthly payments required for loan forgiveness;
- expands qualifying monthly payments, deferments, and forbearances allowed under the PSLF program;
- removes the requirement that a borrower must be employed in a public service job at the time of loan forgiveness;
- establishes a reconsideration process for borrowers who have their initial PSLF application denied; and
- prohibits interest capitalization on loans after deferment or forbearance.
The bill directs ED to (1) establish an online portal that provides borrowers with information on loans and the PSLF program, and (2) establish and regularly update a database listing public service jobs.
The bill allows an eligible teacher to use the same teaching service to qualify for both the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program and the PSLF program.
The Government Accountability Office must study and report on the feasibility of establishing data matching agreements for PSLF that allows borrowers to forgo requesting employment certification from their employer.
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- AMERICAN SPEECH-LANGUAGE-HEARING ASSOCIATION
- NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION
- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS
- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS
- NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION
- AMERICAN SPEECH-LANGUAGE-HEARING ASSOCIATION
Bodies those filers lobbied
- Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)
- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- SENATE
- Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
- Labor, Dept of (DOL)
- Education, Dept of
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 2829: SERVICE Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-2829/
"H.R. 2829: SERVICE Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-2829/.
H.R. 2829, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-2829/.
[H.R. 2829: SERVICE Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-2829/)