A newly introduced bipartisan bill in Congress would make it significantly easier for many teachers, nurses and first responders to qualify for federal student loan forgiveness. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Inclusion Act of 2026 was introduced in the House on September 4 by Bill Foster, an Illinois Democrat, and Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican. The legislation is looking to address one of the most persistent complaints about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program: borrowers discovering years into repayment that the plan they chose does not qualify them for forgiveness.
This financial burden can often discourage talented individuals from pursuing a career in public service,” Foster said in a statement. While the PSLF program promises federal loan cancellation after 10 years of qualifying public-service work and payments, many borrowers have struggled to navigate its complex eligibility rules. According to Foster’s office, 97 percent of public servants who applied for PSLF have historically been denied.
The Trump administration has also ushered in a period of significant change in the federal student loan system. Congress's One Big Beautiful Bill Act established new repayment plans and policies and has also looked to limit which public service workers qualify for the PSLF. Federal court rulings have prevented Trump’s narrowed PSLF eligibility from going into effect.
The bill would expand the types of repayment plans that can count toward PSLF during a borrower's first 60 qualifying payments, which typically make up the first five years of required service. Today, however, qualifying plans generally include income-driven repayment programs like the Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP). But one of the biggest problems facing borrowers has been discovering after years of repayment that they were on the wrong plan, causing months or even years of payments not to count toward forgiveness.
The new bill would provide added flexibility to make sure that doesn’t happen. According to congressional records, the bill's sponsors and original co-sponsors include: The legislation currently has one Republican co-sponsor, making it one of the relatively few bipartisan student-loan bills introduced this Congress. It has bipartisan sponsorship, which helps, but right now that bipartisanship is pretty thin,” Ryan said.
The recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act created a new repayment structure and requires the eventual phaseout of the PAYE and ICR repayment plans by July 1, 2028. PSLF is one of the federal government's most popular forgiveness programs because it offers complete debt cancellation after 10 years for qualifying public-service workers. Teachers, government employees, military personnel, as well as firefighters, police officers and nonprofit workers may qualify.
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