Rubio: Let terrorist attack survivors defer student loans
Sen. Marco Rubio wants to allow survivors of terrorist attacks to automatically defer their student loan payments after the mass shooting at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub.
The Florida Republican is introducing legislation on Monday giving survivors of terrorist attacks a “one-year pause” on payments that wouldn’t count against the three-year cap on federal student loan deferments, according to a release from Rubio’s office.
{mosads}Rubio, who is favored this year in his race for reelection, said the legislation comes after an individual injured in June in the Pulse nightclub shooting, where a shooter killed 49 people, contacted Rubio’s office worried that his injures would impact his ability to make his loan payments.
“Unfortunately, existing law does not automatically recognize an extraordinary situation like this, where giving survivors some time to regroup and delay their payments should be commonsense,” Rubio said in a statement.
Despite a limited Senate schedule, Rubio said that he hopes to get the bill passed this year, “because the last thing anyone who survives a terrorist attack needs is to have to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to get their life back on track.”
The proposal, which would apply to federal direct loans and Perkins loans, would require the agency investigating an attack to designate individuals who are victims of the attack and would be eligible under Rubio’s proposal.
The legislation would also require the Department of Education to establish anti-fraud protections for the program.
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