H.R. 902 · 117th Congress

DEBT Act of 2021

Introduced on Feb 5, 2021 by Steve Stivers (R-OH-15). One cosponsor. Latest action (Feb 5, 2021): Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Stage
Introduced
Introduced
Feb 5, 2021
Cosponsors
1
1 from the other party
Policy area
Taxation
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Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. 2Reported by committee
  3. 3Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to expand the exclusion for employer-provided educational assistance and to expand the availability of the student loan interest deduction.

Subjects

  • Employee benefits and pensions
  • Higher education
  • Income tax deductions
  • Income tax exclusion
  • Interest, dividends, interest rates
  • Student aid and college costs

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in House, Feb 5, 2021). Public domain.

Decreasing Employees Burdensome Taxes from Student Loans Act of 2021 or the DEBT Act of 2021

This bill modifies tax provisions relating to the exclusion from employee gross income for employer-provided educational assistance and the student loan interest tax deduction. Specifically, it (1) expands the tax exclusion for employer-provided educational assistance programs to include an employer's payment of any qualified education loan incurred by an employee, (2) increases the maximum amount that may be excluded from the gross income of an employee under employer-provided educational assistance programs, and (3) increases the maximum tax deduction and the income limitation for interest on education loans.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Steve StiversR-OH-15Sponsor

Democrats · 1

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Feb 5, 2021Introduced in House
  2. Feb 5, 2021Introduced in House
  3. Feb 5, 2021 · HouseReferred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 6, 2026 · loaded Oct 6, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 6, 2026 · loaded Oct 6, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.