Scott, GOP colleagues request Education Dept. details on student loan repayment guidance

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) recently joined nine of his Republican colleagues in questioning a guidance document released by the U.S. Department of Education that they think could potentially allow federal employees to double-dip on student loan refunds.

Specifically, the guidance document states that federal student loan borrowers who made repayments since March 13, 2020 will receive an automatic refund for their payments because both the requirement to make payments and the accrual of interest were paused since this time period, according to the senators’ Oct. 6 letter sent to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. 

“Your current guidance raises the troubling possibility that over 12,000 federal employees who benefit from these taxpayer-funded repayment programs could receive direct checks to ‘reimburse’ them for loan repayments already made by taxpayers,” wrote Sen. Scott and his colleagues. “Your department explicitly tells borrowers that payments can only be ‘refunded to you, even if someone else made a payment on your loan.’”

“This could allow federal employees to receive thousands of dollars in refunds for student loans payments that they never actually made themselves,” they wrote.

Among the lawmakers who joined Sen. Scott in signing the letter were U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Steve Daines (R-MT). The senators asked the secretary to answer questions that included whether the Education Department plans to give a “refund” to any federal employees who had repayments made on their behalf by the federal government since March 13.