The letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was signed by the attorneys general of 47 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo education 51 attorneys general urge DeVos: Erase disabled veterans' student debt

The attorneys general of 51 states and territories on Friday asked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to stop requiring that disabled veterans fill out paperwork to become eligible for federal student loan forgiveness. Instead, they want DeVos to exercise her power to automatically cancel the debt.

Veterans who are “totally and permanently” disabled are entitled under federal law to have their student loans canceled, but the Trump administration’s current process for doing so is “inadequate,” the bipartisan group of attorneys general wrote in a letter to DeVos.


The Education Department “continues to require eligible veterans to take affirmative steps to secure the loan forgiveness that is their statutory right,” the attorneys general wrote. They added that such requirements “may prove insurmountable obstacles to relief for many eligible veterans due to the severe nature of their disabilities.”

The letter was signed by the attorneys general of 47 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The only attorneys general who didn't sign represent Alabama, Arizona and Texas.

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DeVos announced last year that her agency had matched its student loan records with disability records provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify veterans who would be eligible for loan forgiveness.

Education Department officials then sent customized letters to those veterans explaining their right to have their debt canceled. The veterans have to sign and return an application form in order to obtain the loan discharge.

The department last year identified more than 42,000 veterans — collectively owing more than $1 billion in federal student loans — who were eligible for debt relief, according to data released under a Freedom of Information Act request. Fewer than 9,000 of those veterans had returned applications for the loan discharge as of April 2018, according to the data, while more than 25,000 of them were in default on their loans.

The Trump administration has resisted previous bipartisan requests to automatically wipe out the student loan debt of disabled veterans over concerns about the potential tax consequences for borrowers. The Republican tax law in 2017 removed any federal tax liability associated with loans canceled through the program, but Education Department officials have pointed to potential state or local taxes.

An analysis last year by Georgetown Law professor John Brooks, who specializes in tax issues, found that borrowers in 41 states and D.C. would “absolutely” see no state tax consequences if their loans were automatically canceled.

Education Department spokesperson Liz Hill said on Friday that “while ‘automatic discharge’ may seem like a simple solution, there are long-term impacts we want all veterans to have the chance to consider before their loans are discharged.”

Hill cited the “potential state and local tax liabilities” that could be associated with the loan forgiveness. She also said that “a student loan discharge could preclude the veteran from taking out additional federal student loans in the future for continuing education.”

The Education Department’s website says that borrowers who receive a loan discharge based on their disability are eligible for federal student loans in the future “but with some conditions,” such as obtaining a note from a physician.

“The Department recognizes the sacrifices veterans and their families have made for our country, which is why we’ve streamlined the TPD discharge process through the data matching process with the VA,” Hill said. “While we have worked to make this process as easy and as seamless as possible for veterans, the last thing we want to do is cause unintended consequences for them.”

The attorneys general said a change is needed.

“Because America’s veterans deserve better, we ask the Department to develop an automatic discharge process to ensure that all eligible veterans can have their student loans forgiven,” the attorneys general wrote in the letter. “Any concerns that some disabled veterans might not want their student loans discharged can be addressed by providing veterans notice and an opportunity to opt out of loan forgiveness or to seek reinstatement of their loans.”