News Release
April 17, 2007
Thomas Jefferson Student Participates in ABA Day on Capitol Hill
Will Lobby for Affordable Law Student Loans
Thomas Jefferson School of Law student Alyssa McCorkle will be in Washington, D.C. on April 18 and 19, to participate in the American Bar Association’s “ABA Day” on Capitol Hill.
Third-year student McCorkle, who is one of three national student delegates with the ABA, will be among a group of leaders of the ABA, state, local and specialty bar associations who will "lobby" congress on Capitol Hill on the ABA’s top 12 legislative priorities. McCorkle and the other ABA student delegates will be lobbying on behalf of all law students.
McCorkle’s main priority is the issue of making loans more affordable for law students. Currently, there are three bills in Congress that directly impact law student debt and the affordability of public interest work.
What motivates McCorkle is a concern that law students are graduating with too much debt – an average of $60-80,000 in student loans to repay, which makes it difficult to make ends meet especially for positions in public law, such as prosecuting attorneys and public defenders.
“That could result in a shortage of quality people in the District Attorney’s and Public Defender’s offices,” McCorkle said.
In January, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced S. 442 which provides for the creation of a Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) program for state and local prosecutors and public defenders. This program provides $10,000 per year for individuals who commit to, at minimum, 3 years of service. The total amount available for participants in this program is $60,000. S.442 was recently reported out of the Judiciary Committee with favorable amendments.
In the House, an identical measure, H.R.916, has been introduced by Rep. David Scott (D-GA). H.R.916 is currently in the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) also has introduced legislation geared at making public interest work affordable. S.359, titled the Student Debt Relief Act of 2007, contains specific provisions geared toward the Income Contingent Repayment Program (ICR). Sec. 5 of this bill forgives the balance due on direct loans and direct consolidation loans by individuals who have been public sector employees for 10 years and have made 120 income contingent payments. A public sector employee is defined as a full-time job in emergency management, government, public safety, law enforcement, public health, education, social work in a public child or family service agency, or public interest legal services (including prosecutors and public defenders). S.359 also caps loan payments at 15% of the borrower's adjusted gross income for borrowers in this program. No companion measures have been introduced in the House, though several members have already indicated a willingness to do so.
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Contact Alyssa McCorkle at AlyssaMcCorkle@abanet.org.
To learn more about S.442 go to: http://www.abanet.org/lsd/legislation/06-07/durbin.pdf.
To learn more about H.R.916 go to: http://www.abanet.org/lsd/legislation/06-07/scott.pdf.
To learn more about S.359 go to: http://www.abanet.org/lsd/legislation/06-07/kennedy.pdf