AB 171 (Beall) has been amended as it passed out of the Senate Education Committee and headed over to Senate Appropriations. No hearing has been scheduled yet before the Appropriations Committee. To our understanding, the legislature's budget still includes the $100,000 in start up funds for the Student Aid Commission to undertake the regulatory process to launch the program.

A summary of the amendments is below. LAAC reviewed the amendments as recommended by the Senate Education Committee and continues to strongly support the bill.

Questions? Feel free to contact Julia Wilson at jwilson@pic.org.

Summary of Amendments to AB 171 (Beall)(public interest attorney loan assumption program):

·There was a technical change to call the conditional acceptance of law students for loan assumpgtion from "conditional warrants for loan assumption" to " loan assumption agreement";

·The provision about the applicant needing to apply for any other assistance was moved from the eligibility requirements section to the section listing the factors the student aid commission will consider when creating criteria for law student applicants. The factors are now listed in order of importance, and this provision is 4 out of 5.

· There is no longer any mention of part-time or full-time equivalent, but indicate that the commission will determine a method to prorate the benefits for people working less than full time.

· There is a listing of factors for the commission to consider when creating eligibility criteria- one for law students and one for current attorneys. Both are listed in order of importance.

· For law students, the eligiblity factors include:

o Financial neediness based on loans

o The applicants commitment to public interest law- look at employment and volunteer history, but will consider low-income students' need to work while in school.

o The applicants' declared interest for working in geographical areas with need for public interest attorneys

o If the applicant applied for other assistance

o Any other factors the commission develops in conjunction with the advisory committee

· For current public interest attorneys, eligiblity factors include:

o Compensation level

o Financial need based on loans

o Extent of unfilled positions in city, state, county or government offices [NOTE that LAAC reads this criteria to only apply to attorneys in the public sector and not legal services attorneys]

o Certification of having applied to any assistance offered by employer

o Any other factors the commission develops in conjunction with the advisory committee

· While the program is still dependent on state funding, it still includes the ability to augment state funding through private donations. However, the Trust Fund created by the bill will now only contain the private donations AND the commission is expected to solicit and receive donations. Presumably the Student Aid Commission will administer the state funding allocated for the program through its budget, as it does for the other loan assumption programs including those for nurses and teachers.

· There is now a sunset provision- Jan 1, 2015.