Attorney Student Loan Repayment Program
The Department of Justice Attorney Student Loan Repayment Program (ASLRP) is an agency recruitment and retention incentive program based on 5 U.S.C. § 5379, as amended, and 5 CFR Part 537. Any Justice employee serving in or hired to serve in an attorney position may request consideration for the ASLRP.
During an annual open season each spring, the Department competitively selects new participants, and renews awards to current participants during existing service obligations, subject to availability of funds.
To receive ASLRP benefits, the attorney must qualify, the attorney's student loans must qualify, and all statutory, regulatory, and policy requirements must be met.
ASLRP benefits are paid directly to the loan holder, not to the individual attorney.
Initial acceptance of ASLRP funding triggers a three-year service obligation to the Department of Justice. Attorneys who voluntarily do not complete their service obligation must repay the Department for all funds received through the ASLRP. Please review the ASLRP Policy and Leaving DOJ Prior to Completing Service Obligation for more details.
New for 2023:
- The Department established a standard award of $6000 for all recipients, and
- Eliminated the requirement for recipients to continue to make personal loan payments as a condition of participation. Recipients now have the option to either apply the award to the loan balance while continuing to make regular payments or, if facing more immediate budgetary constraints, to apply the award toward their ongoing and future loan payments in order to defray current expenses.
Please note the option to apply the award to future payments may not be available this year for loans owned by the Education Department (ED) due to the extension of the COVID-19 payment pause. Effective March 13, 2020, the ED paused loan payments and set interest rates to 0% for eligible federal student loans. The payment pause has been extended until the ED is permitted to implement a proposed debt relief program or current litigation is resolved. Payments will restart 60 days later. If the debt relief program has not been implemented and the litigation has not been resolved by June 30, 2023, payments will resume 60 days after that. Please note that the full amount of payments made to loans owned by the ED during the 0% interest period will be applied to the principal balance once all the interest that accrued prior to March 13, 2020, has been paid. Visit COVID-19 Loan Payment Pause and 0% Interest | Federal Student Aid for details.
Qualifying loans not held by the ED never qualified for the loan payment pause and 0% interest. Those ASLRP recipients may exercise the option to direct their loan holder to apply the award to current/future payments this year.