TRICKLE DOWN FORGIVENESS? — The announcement that some federal student loans will be forgiven jolted a relatively quiet Capitol Hill this week. Thousands of House and Senate employees could benefit, regardless of whether their bosses' agree with the administration's move, or not . And it could shake up the Hill's own student loan benefits. Cruising under the threshold: The vast majority of Hill staff make under the $125,000 threshold set by the White House, making them eligible for $10,000 in federal debt cancellation and another $10,000 if they were Pell Grant recipients. Payment plan: Nearly 2,000 Hill staffers are enrolled in a student loan repayment assistance program offered by the House and Senate. Administered by the House Chief Administrative Office and the Secretary of the Senate, it allows House offices to allocate up to $833 in loan repayment benefits per employee per month. Senate staffers are maxed at $500 per month. The House recently increased the lifetime limit of the benefit to $80,000 from $60,000. The forgiveness scheme won't trigger any structural changes to the Hill's student loan repayment program, according to staff on the Committee on House Administration, which sets regulations for the House-side program. But depending on how the funds are allocated in any particular office there's a chance for changes — especially if some staffers' loans are totally expunged by the forgiveness program. That could free up some of an office's SLRP allocation to add a new person to the program or beef up someone's benefit. Spreading the wealth: Staffers with loan debt who talked to Huddle this week are hoping to reap some of that SLRP redistribution as their colleagues with less debt are forgiven in-full. But they said that's also pretty standard. "People cycle in and out and people who are done paying loans, that frees up more money for other people," a Senate aide told Huddle. The difference we may see in the coming months is a wave of reshuffling. Like so much else on Capitol Hill, how it is distributed among staff within an office or committee is at the discretion of each lawmaker and their top aides. Some use loan payments as a sweetener for lower paid entry level jobs, others concentrate the benefit among senior staff with graduate loans. Staffers who are excluded from the forgiveness because they make too much money are still eligible to participate in the staffer repayment plans. The Congressional Workers' Union, which represents staff in eight Democratic offices with more expected to unionize, told Huddle they are exploring if how the SLRP benefit is distributed among staff in an office could be categorized as wages and conditions eligible for bargaining. Many SLRP loan payments are taxed as additional income, depending on what type of loan it is. The SLRP has continued making payments even during the pandemic freeze, according to both House Administration aides and staff in the program who talked to Huddle. That has allowed more bang for staffers' bucks as interest has not been accruing during the freeze. Payback: Staffers make a commitment to stay in an office for a year in order to enroll in the SLRP program. Offices can claw back payments, in a lump sum, if an employee leaves before that period. But most who talked to Huddle say there is no way they could afford a lump-sum payment, which encourages those enrolled to stay put. No members allowed: No members of Congress are eligible for the forgiveness program and they can't enroll in the repayment plan (though some of them did reap the benefit when they were staffers.) Check your check: On Sept. 1, the $45,000 House pay floor goes into effect.
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