Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
11/6/2015
Seventeen members of Congress are urging the Department of Education to grant eligibility to all employees of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) 16 national laboratories for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLFP). Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-Calif.) Nov. 2 letter to the Department of Education says the PSLFP, which forgives federal student loans for public servants after 10 years of work, omits “an entire class of employees in public service” by excluding personnel at privately operated DOE labs because the employers are for-profit. The program considers as public service employers any government entity and certain not-for-profit organizations.
“The DOE national labs, while run by private contractors, do not operate like a typical business,” Swalwell said, noting that the labs operate “in the public interest” and “receive at least 70 percent of their financial support from the federal government.” The letter also calls for the Department of Education to exclude DOE labs from regulations concerning for-profit entities. The PSLFP program currently excludes labor unions, partisan political organizations, for-profit organizations, and non-tax exempt nonprofits.
This move, according to the letter, would enhance the recruitment and retention of scientists and engineers by encouraging them to join in the DOE’s national security mission rather than moving into the private sector. “Growing student loan debt should not be an impediment to the next generation of our best and brightest from devoting their careers to the critical endeavors of our DOE national labs,” it says.
Swalwell’s congressional district includes the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the California branch of Sandia National Laboratories, which are among five labs at which employees “are categorically ineligible” for the program because of their for-profit operating contractors. “These labs have a long history of scientific breakthroughs, but when faced with high student loan debt, some young scientists and engineers are forced to opt for more lucrative careers in the private sector,” Swalwell said in an announcement this week. The Department of Education has not yet responded to the letter, according to Swalwell’s office.
