Lawyers contracting with the Office of the Respondent Parents’ Counsel, the Office of the Child’s Representative and the Office of the Alternative Defense Counsel ensure thousands of people in Colorado go to trial with competent counsel every year. If House Bill 24-1374 becomes law, these contractors will soon be eligible for the same federal public service loan forgiveness program as their government-employed counterparts.
The bill reflects a new environment for the loan forgiveness program. In July 2023, the federal government issued a rule change allowing contracted employees providing services that can’t be filled by the state to be eligible for loan forgiveness after 10 years of service.
Three agencies in Colorado, ORPC, OCR and OADC “primarily use contractors to provide legal representation on behalf of the agencies because providing the same services through state employees would create ethical conflicts,” according to the bill.
Until the rule change, contractors at these agencies were ineligible for loan forgiveness, despite doing comparable public service work to their government counterparts.
According to the bill text, one of the intentions of the act is to help improve the recruitment and retention of contractors for this work, with the reasoning that every year, the agencies lose highly qualified and trained contractors to other jobs where they are eligible for the loan forgiveness program.
Colorado Rep. Julia Marvin, one of the bill’s three Democratic sponsors, told the committee the bill also extends beyond the lawyers that contract with these three agencies.
“Each agency contracts with social workers and also additional contractors, including parent advocates, resource advocates, researchers and other contractors,” said Marvin. “And so with this bill, all contractors who work an equivalent of full time with the agencies would be eligible to apply for the federal program.”
Witnesses at the committee hearing testified to the similarity of the work they were doing, and the impact the loan forgiveness would make on their ability to continue doing their contract work for the agencies.
Ashley Cordero, a contractor with OADC testifying in her personal capacity, told the committee the program would drastically change her family’s life and her ability to pay back her law school loans.
Catharine Armstrong, who has worked with OADC and OCR as a contractor, told the committee that her student loans were a big reason why her household lived paycheck to paycheck, despite her several years of legal experience.
“I currently pay over $500 a month, I am not scheduled to finish paying off my loans until 2042,” said Armstrong. “If this law was already enacted, I would be just two years shy of having my loans forgiven.”
OCR’s representative at the hearing, Katie Hecker, said the agency wholeheartedly supports the bill and had received feedback from their contractors that the loan forgiveness is something they need for their quality of life.
“We know that attorneys don’t apply or don’t stay with the work because of the financial burdens, because they’re not eligible for this program,” said Hecker. “And so this bill has the potential really to continue elevating the practice in all three of these agencies.”
Rep. Matt Soper, the sole Republican who voted yes on the bill in committee, said the bill was one he did and didn’t like. Soper said he liked that the bill aligned public interest lawyers with other public interest lawyers.
“What I don’t like about the bill is as it says in the title, concerning independent contractors, we’re treating independent contractors the same as public employees,” said Soper. “So someone who works like an employee, but yet isn’t an employee, and that’s the part I find very challenging.”
The bill passed to the committee of the whole on a 9-2 vote, with Republican Reps. Ryan Armagost and Gabe Evans voting no.