To a US Senator: codify the PSLF reforms in statute

If you, a family member, or a colleague has benefited from PSLF, name that experience. Personal experience makes this letter substantially more effective. Senators on Education and Workforce / HELP committees carry particular weight on this issue.

Dear Senator [Last Name],

I’m writing as a constituent in [city/town] to ask you to support legislation codifying the 2021-2023 Public Service Loan Forgiveness reforms in federal statute.

PSLF, after a decade of implementation failure, finally works. Over a million borrowers — teachers, nurses, social workers, public defenders, military service members, and other public-service workers — have had federal student loans discharged through the program since the reforms began in 2021. Total discharged debt now exceeds $80 billion. The program is functioning as Congress originally intended in 2007.

The reforms that made PSLF work were administrative — Department of Education rulemakings, servicer-contract changes, account-adjustment processes. A subsequent administration could, in principle, reverse them through new rulemaking. The PSLF Reform Act and similar proposals would codify the reforms in statute, making them durable across administrations.

Specifically, statutory codification would:

1. Lock in the broader employment-eligibility interpretation that the 2021 reforms adopted, ensuring that public-service workers in qualifying employers cannot be retroactively excluded.
2. Codify the simplified payment-counting methodology that addressed the FFEL-loan and IDR-plan technical denials of the prior decade.
3. Establish stronger servicer accountability with consequences for processing failures.
4. Expand eligible-employer definitions to cover certain public-interest categories currently excluded (e.g., certain healthcare workers in for-profit settings serving primarily public-program patients).
5. Strengthen the borrower-defense framework that has provided relief to veterans and other students defrauded by closed for-profit colleges.

[Personalize: name your or someone you know’s PSLF experience if applicable. Examples: “I’m a [profession] who has been working in qualifying employment since [year] and recently had my loans discharged”; “My [family member/colleague] is a [profession] counting on PSLF after [years] of qualifying service”; “I work alongside teachers/nurses/social workers who depend on the program for the financial sustainability of their careers”.]

I’m also writing to ask you to defend the SAVE plan and broader income-driven repayment reforms that have parallel importance for borrowers in non-public-service careers. The 2024 litigation has paused parts of SAVE; the underlying federal authority to operate generous IDR programs remains an active legal and political question.

I’d appreciate knowing your position on PSLF codification proposals and on broader federal student loan policy in the current session.

Thank you for your service.

Sincerely,

[Your name] [Your address]