LOUISVILLE, KY — At the American Veterans National Convention in Louisville Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order cancelling all student loan debt for permanently disabled veterans in the U.S. Military.
“The debt of these disabled veterans will be completely erased,” Trump said. “That’s hundreds of millions of dollars in student debt held by our severely wounded warriors. It’s gone forever.”
The memorandum signed by President Trump helps direct the government to develop a better process to take the burden off of our nations veterans. Only half of the roughly 50,000 disabled veterans who meet the qualifications have received the student loan discharge due to the faulty system currently in place.
The current discharge process is called Total and Permanent Disability, or TPD. Under this program, a disabled veteran must have a VA service-connected disability rating of 100 percent in order to have their debt forgiven under a student loan forgiveness program.
However, only about 20 percent of eligible veterans use the program due to it’s complex nature. Trump’s new order does not create a new student loan forgiveness program, but instead helps streamline and fix the current program in place.
The executive order also clears eligible veterans from paying any federal income tax on the loans.
