Scrutiny Grows As U.S. Pays Staffers' Student Loans

WASHINGTON -- Congress and federal agencies are expected to spend as much as $60 million in fiscal 2009 on a little-known taxpayer-funded perk: repaying government employees' college loans.

Paying off staffers' old student loans is rare in the private sector. And while total spending on the benefit in the federal government remains relatively small, it has multiplied since the program began seven years ago, according to federal records and government officials.

Mike Orenstein, spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management, which handles human-resources policy for the federal government, said the repayment program was adopted across all agencies in the 2002 fiscal year amid competition for professionals at the time. Now, he said, "agencies need to review their staffing levels, their overall needs and resources, and determine whether or not it makes sense to use this program at the current time."

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