Congress Approves Tuition Debt Relief for Civil Legal Aid Attorneys
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Legal Services Corporation
Source: LSC Updates
Date: 8/13/08
Legal Services Corporation ("LSC") reports: "Congress has approved a package of higher education amendments that would, in part, establish a program for providing educational debt relief to civil legal aid lawyers. The bill, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (H.R. 4137), was presented to President Bush on August 6 [2008] after it passed the House and Senate on July 31. News outlets have reported that the President intends to sign the bill despite earlier opposition to sections unrelated to the legal aid provision. If signed into law, section 431 of the bill would authorize $10 million for the U.S. Department of Education to distribute as loan repayment assistance grants-$6,000 a year, $40,000 for a lifetime-to full-time civil legal aid lawyers who agree to remain employed as such for at least three years. Priority will be given to lawyers with five years of experience or less who have spent at least 90 percent of that time as legal aid lawyers. However, participants in the new program could not benefit from a separate loan repayment program established by the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which became law in September 2007. That program would completely forgive the balance of certain student loans for legal aid lawyers after ten years of service. The $10 million authorized by the bill will not automatically become available if and when the bill becomes law. Congress will have to appropriate funds for the program through a separate process."