Quasi-update on Loan Repayment Programs

John R. Justice, Champion of Prosecutors



Apologies, fellow legal eagles and food lovers, for my failure to provide any posts for the last month. My New Year's resolution is to make posting a regular part of my life (along with getting my butt off the couch more often).

A recent article in The Prosecutor and a conversation with a fellow law school grad spurred me to give those of you poor, hardworking government and non-profit attorneys some information on the loan repayment programs currently being developed.

According to this article, there are two more steps before people like me and my co-workers can start clamoring for funding under the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defedenders Incentive Act: appropriations and regulations. I'll let the article speak for itself:

1. Appropriations. The program must be funded either in the FY 2009 or the FY 2010 spending bill for the Departments of Commerce and Justice and the science related programs because the program will be administered by the United States attorney general.


  • FY 2009 Appropriations bills: There is a sense that after the expiration of the Continuing Resolution in March 2009, that Congress will resume work on the outstanding appropriations bills for FY 2009 in an effort to pass them separately before the end of the fiscal year.

  • FY 2010 Appropriations bills: In addition to attempting to amend the FY 2009 spending bills to include the funding for the authorized program, it will also be important to monitor and participate in the FY 2010 (Oct. 1, 2009 – Sept. 30, 2010) appropriations process.

  • Appropriators have deadlines for the submission of appropriations request forms which fall generally in the early spring. The appropriations process starts far in advance of the actual fiscal year so a dual track approach (FY 2009 and FY 2010 simultaneously) to the funding of this program will probably need to be adopted.

2. Regulations. Pursuant to the “John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act” the United States Department of Justice will administer the program and the U.S. attorney general is authorized to promulgate regulations for the implementation of the program.

  • The U.S. Department of Justice administers a similar loan repayment assistance program for federal prosecutors so it is likely that this federal program will be used as a template for the local prosecutor program.

  • Likely issues to be detailed in the regulations that are not addressed by the federal program include:

  • Formulas for the fair division of funds among district attorneys and public defenders as well as geographical parity in the allocation of funds;

  • The extent to which employers will be involved in the application process. The committee report on the legislation envisioned a role for the employer because the person receiving the assistance should be a qualified employee that an employer either wants to recruit or retain.


So, there we are. Basically, not a whole lot of movement, more just clarification. In other news, a question came up the other night about the other funding program available for government and non-profit attorneys--The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. It is as follows:



This program is for people with federal student loans who work in a wide range of "public service" jobs, including jobs in government and nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations.
Eligible jobs are based on whether you work for an eligible employer. Your job is eligible if you:

  • are employed by any nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization;

  • are employed by the federal government, a state government, local government, or tribal government (this includes the military and public schools and colleges); or

  • serve in a full-time AmeriCorps or Peace Corps position.

  • NOTE: You DO NOT have to be a practicing lawyer to qualify for this program.

It covers federal Stafford, Grad PLUS, or consolidation loans as long as they are in the Direct Loan program. Borrowers with loans in the Guaranteed (or FEEL) loan program must switch to the Direct Loan program to get this benefit.

Only payments made after October 1, 2007 count towards the 10 years (120 monthly payments, not necessarily consecutive) required for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Qualifying payments must be made through the Direct Loan program and include Income Contingent Repayment, Standard (10-year) Repayment, or Income-Based Repayment (available in July 2009). More info can be found here.

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