Senate President Pete P. Reyes’s Senate Bill 16-13 is now Public Law 16-15.
The new law mandates “to forbear, in certain instances, the collection of the educational financial assistance liability of returning college students that cannot find employment within the private or public sector of the commonwealth due to budgetary limitations, reduction in force or because a position is filled by a foreign national worker.”
The new law mandates a “financial assistance forbearance” so long as the recipient is “unemployed, actively seeking employment and unable to repay the debt; provided that such forbearance shall also be granted to an off-island recipient during the first two years after graduation if such recipient is employed off-island in a position germane to the recipient’s field of study.”
It prohibits the CNMI government from charging graduates any interest on their student loans or financial aid.
Likewise, it recognizes military service as tantamount to serving the CNMI.
The CNMI Scholarship Office is mandated to coordinate with other government agencies to assist returning local graduates in finding employment here.
