New House Bill Would Make Farm And Ranch Workers Eligible For PSLF

A bipartisan House bill would add farm and ranch work to the list of jobs eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. H.R. 9974, the Young Farmer Success Act, was introduced by Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) alongside Reps. Joe Courtney (D-CT), Monica De La Cruz (R-TX), and Nikki Budzinski (D-IL), and referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.

The text of the bill amends Section 455(m)(3)(B) of the Higher Education Act to treat full-time work as an “employee or manager of a qualified farm or ranch” as a public service job. A qualified operation is one with at least $35,000 in gross revenue from agricultural product sales in 2026, indexed to inflation in later years. Borrowers would still need 120 qualifying payments, the same rule that applies to every other job category on the PSLF list.