Legislators led by Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Joe Courtney moved on Tuesday to block the Trump administration's new limits on Public Service Loan Forgiveness, the program that has let government and nonprofit workers have student debt erased after 10 years of qualifying payments.
The resolution, filed under the Congressional Review Act, takes direct aim at a rule finalized at the end of 2025 that would redefine public service and bar employers deemed to engage in substantial illegal activity. The administration has said that could include gender-affirming care or harboring illegal immigrants.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness was signed into law by former President George W. Bush in 2007, and before the proposed change, any employer in the government or nonprofit sector could qualify. Under the new rule, the Education Department would notify an employer if it determined the group had engaged in illegal activity and give it a chance to rebut the findings.
Courtney said the rule “would pick and choose which public servants are eligible for forgiveness based on the Trump Administration's ideological agenda, which clearly goes against Congressional intent.” Nicholas Kent, the Education Department's undersecretary, said the administration was narrowing the program so federal benefits go to “our Nation's teachers, first responders, and civil servants who tirelessly serve their communities.”
If an employer is disqualified, it can reapply for eligibility within 10 years or enter a corrective action plan with the department. The fight over the rule is already moving on two fronts: in November 2025, a coalition of cities and nonprofits sued the administration, arguing that limiting PSLF would hurt nonprofit recruitment. That puts Congress, the courts and the Education Department on a collision course over who gets access to one of the federal government's most valuable student loans benefits.
For workers counting on forgiveness after a decade of public service, the next step is not a policy debate in the abstract. It is whether Congress can stop the rule before it starts cutting employers out of the program.
