Trump Executive Order Limits Eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Credit: Chris Kleponis / CNP / Bloomberg / Getty Images- An executive order signed by President Donald Trump proposes substantial revisions to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
- Trump wants to limit the organizations whose employees would qualify for PSLF.
- Organizations that engage in “illegal” purposes, as defined by Trump, would no longer count for loan relief.
- The Department of Education is tasked with ironing out the details of the president’s proposal.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order March 7 that could limit which nonprofit organizations can benefit from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.
Trump’s executive order directs the Department of Education (ED) to propose revisions to the PSLF program to exclude organizations that serve a “substantial illegal purpose.” The order’s definition of “illegal purpose” falls in line with many of the Trump administration’s culture war topics, including immigration and gender-affirming care for minors.
“As president of the United States,” the executive order reads, “I have a duty to protect, preserve, and defend the Constitution and our national security, which includes ending the subsidization of illegal activities, including illegal immigration, human smuggling, child trafficking, pervasive damage to public property, and disruption of the public order, which threaten the security and stability of the United States.”
Former President George W. Bush established the PSLF program in 2007. It incentivizes college graduates to enter public service jobs with complete federal student loan debt forgiveness after 120 months (10 years) of repayment while employed at a nonprofit or government agency.
Trump’s proposal would exclude agencies that:
- Aid and abet violations of immigration laws
- Support terrorism, including by providing funding to entities designated as foreign terrorist organizations
- Engage in violence to obstruct or influence federal policy
- Engage in child abuse, including “the chemical and surgical castration or mutilation of children”
- Move children to “so-called transgender sanctuary states” to emancipate them from their parents
- Aid and abet illegal discrimination
- Engage in a pattern of trespassing, disorderly conduct, public nuisance, vandalism, and obstruction of highways
Ending PSLF was among the proposals included in Project 2025, a think tank’s blueprint for the next Republican president.
In the past, ED has had to use the lengthy negotiated rulemaking process to amend PSLF. This process often takes over a year to complete, but it’s unclear if the Trump administration would utilize rulemaking to enact his proposed changes.
Some borrower advocacy groups, including the National Student Legal Defense Network, quickly condemned the order as executive overreach.
“Threatening to punish hardworking Americans for their employers’ perceived political views is about as flagrant a violation of the First Amendment as you can imagine,” the Defense Network said in a statement.
“If the Trump administration follows through on this threat, they can plan to see us in court.”
ED approved very few PSLF applications before former President Joe Biden’s administration. However, over the course of Biden’s presidency, his administration granted $78.5 billion in debt relief to 1.1 million borrowers under PSLF.