A decade-old program that forgives the federal student loan debt of those who work inpublic service jobs for 10 years would be eliminated underPresident Donald Trump's proposed budget.

That budget, released Tuesday, would axe the Public Service LoanForgiveness Program and institute other changes to the student loanrepayment system that would make some attorneys, nurses, teachers,doctors and other professionals who borrow from the government tofinance their professional educations wait 30 years to see theirdebt canceled — up from 25 years.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness is popular in the legal field,where it's widely viewed as a financial lifeline to attorneys whopursue careers in relatively low-paying positions such as publicdefenders, prosecutors and legal aid attorneys. Without loanforgiveness, those positions hold less appeal and would seesignificantly higher turnover, supporters said in the wake ofTrump's budget unveiling.

Fewer talented and experienced attorneys in those positionswould in turn hurt the communities they serve and ultimately costthem more, they added.

“We need lawyers who are willing to become prosecutors, publicdefenders and legal aid lawyers,” said American Bar Associationpresident Linda Klein on Tuesday. “I can only imagine what the costof withdrawing this support will be to our communities. The cost offailing to provide these necessary services to people — and I'm notjust talking about lawyers — will be a problem I don't know thatthe people who decided to zero out Public Service Loan Forgivenesshave thought about.”

Still, presidential budget proposals generally serve as a framefor budget negotiations in Congress. It's lawmakers on Capitol Hillwho ultimately decide what programs to fund and cut.

Eliminating the loan forgiveness program would save the federalgovernment $27 billion over 10 years, according to Trump's budgetprojections.

It's unclear how the Office of Management and Budget came tothat estimate, said Philip Schrag, a Georgetown University LawCenter professor, who has studied the loan forgiveness program. Buta long-standing criticism of the program, he said, is thatgovernment officials don't actually know how much it will cost inthe long run.

Other critics have zeroed in on outlying cases where highly paiddoctors could have their loan debt forgiven, said Chris Chapman,president of AccessLex Institute, a nonprofit organization thatadvocates for greater access to legal education. But the vastmajority of qualified borrowers will never earn such incomes. “Youshouldn't make policy around exceptions,” Chapman said.

Heather Abraham said her heart sank when she learned that thePublic Service Loan Forgiveness Program was on the chopping block.She graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2012with about $200,000 in student loans, which includes someundergraduate debt as well as her joint law degree and master's inhousing and public policy.

She now earns about $38,000 a year as a fellow at Legal Servicesof Northern Michigan in Traverse City, Michigan, where sherepresents clients in eviction cases and the chronically homeless.She's counting on the program to forgive the balance of her loandebt in 2022. In fact, the program is the reason she decided toleave her job as a legislative aid to U.S. Senator Amy Klobucharand follow her dream of becoming a lawyer.

“That's what told me, 'Yes, I can do what I really want to doand what I'm meant to do,'” Abraham said. “It took me 10 years toget where I am today, after that bill passed, but I'm finally doingthe work I love. Politics has never felt more personal to me. Itscares me, and makes me think so many communities will sufferbecause talented people will not go into public interest.”

Despite Abraham's worries, experts say the language in Trump'sbudget proposal suggests that the program's elimination would onlyapply to new federal loan borrows after July 2018. Those already inthe program and current law students funding their tuition withfederal loans would still be eligible, though Congress could pursuefurther changes that roll the program back or cut it altogether forexisting borrowers, supporters warn.

Still, outright elimination of the program would be a tough sellon Capitol Hill, said Isaac Bowers, director of law schoolengagement and advocacy at Equal Justice Works, a nonprofitorganization that helps law students pursue public interest lawjobs.

The program was established in 2007 under President George W.Bush, and it enjoyed bipartisan support at the time. It remainspopular with Democrats and some Republicans who view it as a way toensure that government and public service organizations can recruitand retain talented workers.

“We have talked to plenty of members of Congress on theRepublican side of the aisle who are still supportive of PublicService Loan Forgiveness and understand how important it is,”Bowers said. “I do not think it's a forgone conclusion thatCongress will vote to either cap or eliminate it.”

But Trump's budget proposal is important because it establishesa baseline of what the administration would accept, Chapmansaid.

“The risk is that Congress can say, 'Oh, well the Trumpadministration says we can eliminate Public Service LoanForgiveness and save [money] we can spend elsewhere that we knowthe president is not going to veto,'” Chapman said. “It givescover.”

Under the current iteration of the program, borrowers pay 10% oftheir discretionary income toward their student loans. The balanceof their federal loan debt is forgiven after making a decade ofpayments, as long as they have worked in a qualified public servicejob that entire time. The initial cohort of eligible borrowers isdue to have their loan debts forgiven in October.

The average qualified borrower will pay 91% of their federalloan amount before their debt is forgiven, Bowers said, meaning thebulk of the amount forgiven by the government is actually accruedinterest.

The percentage of lawyers directly affected by throwing out theprogram would be relatively small, but the reverberations of itsundoing would be broad.

About 15% of law graduates take government and public interestjobs upon graduation, and Bowers estimates that between 3 and 5percent will stay in those positions long enough to qualify. Still,those lawyers have an outsized impact on underserved populations,supporters said.

“Public Service Loan Forgiveness is not really about theborrower,” Bowers said. “It's about the recruitment and retentionof public service into these long-term public service careers andthe communities they serve. Ultimately the people who will be hurtare the beneficiaries of these legal, medical, social work serviceproviders, and the students who will not have teachers who are asdedicated and long serving.

Employers benefit from the program because it reduces turnover,Schrag said. “The average tenure of a lawyer at a governmentorganization like a state Attorney General's Office or the FederalTrade Commission is about two years,” he said. “The Public ServiceLoan Forgiveness Program, by incentivizing people to stay for 10years, enables the government agencies and nonprofit organizationsto hire people who will stay beyond the two years it takes to trainthem to do a good job.”

Equal Justice Works has already aligned with a coalition oforganizations for doctors, nurses, social workers and otherprofessions that qualify for the program and is planning a lobbyingcampaign in support.

Similarly, a number of legal education groups have been lobbyingfor the program in recent years after President Barack Obamaproposed capping the amount of debt that can be forgiven. (Thatproposal never went forward.) The Association of American LawSchools, the Law School Admission Council Inc. and the NationalAssociation for Law Placement Inc. are among the groups lobbyingCongress to maintain the program, Chapman said. The ABA too will bepushing lawmakers to keep the program, according to Klein.

“We were there when it started and we're going to fight for itto stay,” she said.

Dismantling the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program wouldalso hurt enrollment at law schools that serve lower-incomestudents who have public service career aspirations, said Mary LuBilek, dean at the City University of New York School of Law. Manyof its students simply could not afford its relatively low in-statetuition of $14,663 and living costs without the promise of loanforgiveness. Three-quarters of the school's 2016 graduates tookpublic service jobs, she said.

“Eliminating Public Service Loan Forgiveness means that smartand public service-oriented students from communities underservedby the profession and underrepresented in the profession are facedwith a Hobson's choice: Not pursue the service-oriented practicethat motivated them to come to law school or not go to law schoolat all,” Bilek said.

As a result, only students of greater financial means would beable to pursue public interest careers, not just in law but acrossall professions, she added.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness isn't the only change Trump'sbudget proposal would make to federal loans. It also calls forstreamlining the student loan repayment system, which currentlyoffers five different income-based repayment plans that cappayments at a certain percentage of the borrower's income andcancel outstanding debt after a certain period of time.

The proposed budget calls for a single repayment option forgraduate-level loans, in which borrowers would pay 12.5% of theirdiscretionary income toward their loans and have their balancecanceled after 30 years. That's a less favorable deal that thecurrent options offer, which cap payments between 10% and 15% ofincome and cancel balances after 20 or 25 years.

“Law students and any graduate of a professional school shouldbe concerned about that,” Bowers said.

Abraham said she would like Congress to not only preserve thePublic Service Loan Forgiveness Program, but to protect it fromfuture attacks.

“I'd like to see a critical mass of Congress step forward andsay, 'This program is vital,'” she said.