VALOR Act Makes Public Service Loan Forgiveness Easier for Active Duty Military, Waiving 10-Year Payment Rule

The VALOR Act of 2025 (Veteran and Active Loan Obligation Relief Act) is stepping up to fix a long-standing issue for service members dealing with student loan debt and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Essentially, this bill recognizes that when you’re deployed or on active duty, managing student loan payments is the last thing on your mind, and the existing rules often penalized those who paused their payments during service.

The PSLF Shortcut for Active Duty

This bill cuts straight to the chase: It mandates that the Secretary of Education must treat any monthly payment that was deferred or put into forbearance while a borrower was in “covered active duty service” as a qualifying monthly payment for PSLF. Think of it this way: If you paused your payments for 18 months while deployed, those 18 months now count toward the 120 payments needed for forgiveness, even though you didn’t send a dime. This drastically speeds up the forgiveness timeline for those juggling student loans and military commitments.

Ten Years of Service Equals Forgiveness

Here’s the biggest change, found in Section 2: If a borrower completes 10 years of full-time employment while serving in covered active duty, the Secretary must waive the usual requirement of having made 120 qualifying monthly payments. In plain English, 10 years of qualifying military service alone is enough to meet the service requirement for loan forgiveness, provided you meet the other PSLF rules. This means the time served is now the primary metric, not the often-complicated payment history.

Who Benefits from This Change?

This is a huge win for active duty service members and veterans who have federal student loans. It removes the bureaucratic headache of ensuring every payment was made on time and under the correct repayment plan while they were focused on their service. The bill defines “covered active duty service” broadly, and notably, it also includes full-time duty in the active service of the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), bringing NOAA officers into the PSLF military benefit fold.

Making the Fine Print Fair

One common frustration with PSLF is that borrowers often don’t enroll or track their progress from Day One. The VALOR Act addresses this by ensuring that the Secretary must grant forgiveness if you meet the requirements, even if you didn't enroll in the PSLF program when you first started your military service. This provision acknowledges the reality that people often find out about these programs years into their careers. While this bill is great news for service members, it does mean the Department of Education will have a significant administrative load sorting through past deferments and service records, and, naturally, the federal government will be forgiving more loans, which ultimately impacts the federal budget.