SLASH Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3793 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include interest rate provisions for Federal loans made on or after July 1, 2020. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 17, 2019 Ms. KENDRA S. HORN of Oklahoma introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include interest rate provisions for Federal loans made on or after July 1, 2020. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Student Loan Accrual 4 Support and Help Act’’ or the ‘‘SLASH Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FEDERAL STUDENT LOAN INTEREST RATES. 6 Section 455(b) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 7 (20 U.S.C. 1087e(b)) is amended— 8 (1) in the header of paragraph (8), by inserting 9 ‘‘, and before July 1, 2020’’ after ‘‘July 1, 2013’’; 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:17 Jul 27, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3793.IH H3793 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 3793 IH (2) in subparagraphs (A), (B), (C), and (D) of 1 paragraph (8), by inserting ‘‘and before July 1, 2 2020,’’ after ‘‘July 1, 2013,’’ each place it appears; 3 (3) by redesignating paragraphs (9) and (10) 4 as paragraphs (10) and (11), respectively; and 5 (4) by inserting at the end of paragraph (8) the 6 following new paragraph: 7 ‘‘(9) INTEREST RATE PROVISIONS FOR NEW 8 LOANS ON OR AFTER JULY 1, 2020.— 9 ‘‘(A) RATE FOR ALL NEW FEDERAL DI- 10 RECT LOANS.—Notwithstanding the preceding 11 paragraphs of this subsection, for Federal Di- 12 rect Stafford Loans, Federal Direct Unsub- 13 sidized Stafford Loans, and Federal Direct 14 PLUS Loans, for which the first disbursement 15 is made on or after July 1, 2020, the applicable 16 rate of interest shall, for loans disbursed during 17 any 12-month period beginning on July 1 and 18 ending on June 30, be determined on the pre- 19 ceding June 1 and be equal to the lesser of— 20 ‘‘(i) a rate equal to the high yield of 21 the 10-year Treasury note auctioned at the 22 final auction held prior to such June 1; or 23 ‘‘(ii) 5.0 percent, 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:17 Jul 27, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3793.IH H3793 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 3793 IH except that the applicable rate of interest for 1 any 12-month period (beginning on July 1 and 2 ending on June 30) shall not exceed the appli- 3 cable rate of interest for the preceding 12- 4 month period by more than 0.5 percent. 5 ‘‘(B) CONSOLIDATION LOANS.—Notwith- 6 standing the preceding paragraphs of this sub- 7 section, any Federal Direct Consolidation Loan 8 for which the application is received on or after 9 July 1, 2020, shall bear interest at an annual 10 rate on the unpaid principal balance of the loan 11 that is equal to the lesser of— 12 ‘‘(i) the weighted average of the inter- 13 est rates on the loans consolidated, round- 14 ed to the nearest higher one-eighth of one 15 percent; or 16 ‘‘(ii) the applicable rate of interest, as 17 determined on the preceding June 1 in ac- 18 cordance with subparagraph (A), for Fed- 19 eral Direct Stafford Loans disbursed dur- 20 ing the 12-month period (beginning on 21 July 1 and ending on June 30) during 22 which the application for consolidation is 23 received. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:58 Jul 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3793.IH H3793 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 3793 IH ‘‘(C) CONSULTATION.—The Secretary shall 1 determine the applicable rate of interest under 2 subparagraph (A) after consultation with the 3 Secretary of the Treasury and shall publish 4 such rate in the Federal Register as soon as 5 practicable after the date of determination. 6 ‘‘(D) RATE.—The applicable rate of inter- 7 est determined under this paragraph for a Fed- 8 eral Direct Stafford Loan, a Federal Direct Un- 9 subsidized Stafford Loan, a Federal Direct 10 PLUS Loan, or a Federal Direct Consolidation 11 Loan shall be fixed for the period of the loan.’’. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:17 Jul 27, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3793.IH H3793 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS