Open Letter: Time to Deliver on the Legal Promise of PSLF

To Secretary Linda McMahon and the U.S. Department of Education

Jul 30, 2025

Millions of public-service borrowers are owed relief under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Yet, due to systemic failures and political interference under the current administration, these benefits remain undelivered—despite borrowers having met every statutory requirement.

🔍 What’s the Crisis?

The Department has acknowledged a backlog of 1.5–1.6 million Income‑Driven Repayment (IDR) applications and tens of thousands of pending PSLF Buyback requests.
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As of June 2025, over 65,000 PSLF Buyback applications had not been processed—despite an official 45-business-day review timeline that is widely ignored. Monthly processing rates remain stuck around 3–5%.
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Even borrowers who have submitted Buyback requests as early as January 2025 report no response after six months, indicating that the Department is failing its core mission.
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⚠️ What Borrowers Are Facing

A borrower representing thousands of others summarized it succinctly:

“I was four payments from forgiveness. I acted in good faith… yet six months later, I’m still in limbo.”
This experience is not anecdotal—it’s systemic.
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These are not just bureaucratic delays—they are denials of a congressionally mandated right.

📌 Why the Department Must Act

Secretary McMahon has spent her tenure advancing efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, with executive orders aiming to scale back federal oversight—including student financial aid programs.
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Meanwhile, controversies swirl around politically motivated priorities like school mascots and transgender bathroom enforcement, while statutorily required programs like PSLF are frozen in bureaucratic paralysis.
A lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) charges the Department with denying borrowers access to PSLF and IDR, failing to comply with federal law.
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This represents not just neglect—but an active abandonment of statutory responsibility.

🛠 What the Department Must Do—Immediately

Commit to resolving all PSLF Buyback applications older than 45 business days within 30 days.
Publish weekly public data on numbers of pending IDR and Buyback applications—including processing rates and average wait time.
Continue uninterrupted PSLF credit for borrowers forced into SAVE litigation-related forbearance, allowing retroactive counting of months lost.
Provide whistleblower-style channels for borrowers whose status has been mishandled, with protections against retaliation.
Resume full staffing of Federal Student Aid, reversing layoffs that have crippled operational capacity.
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📢 Public Advocacy & Next Steps

Borrower advocacy organizations, union leaders, and public service workers should demand a congressional oversight hearing on PSLF implementation and delays.
Constituents should contact their members of Congress, noting that borrowers are being denied the benefits Congress explicitly created.
Media outlets must investigate—and expose—how political priorities (e.g., culture wars) may be diverting attention from legally mandated loan forgiveness.

✔️ Bottom Line

Public servants have upheld their end—they have worked, paid, and served. Now it’s time for the Department of Education to do its job. Secretary McMahon must prioritize statutory compliance over political theatre, and deliver forgiveness without further delay.