Measure would expand SCRA protections - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Measure would expand SCRA protections

A House subcommittee is considering legislation that would further expand financial and legal protections for deployed service members who are going to college or have cell phone contracts or property leases.

The Helping Active Duty Deployed Act, HR 2874, is one of several veterans bills pending before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee that could become part of an omnibus bill.

At a Sept. 24 hearing of the committee’s economic opportunity panel, HR 2874 was described as an expansion of protections in the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act and other federal laws.

For example, two years ago, the law was changed so that service members can terminate a cell phone contract if they get orders to a new stateside duty station or are deployed outside the U.S. The bill covered the service member’s individual contract, but the new bill would extend termination rights to include a family plan made on behalf of a service member.

“The provision would affect just designated family plans,” said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., one of the co-sponsors. “It would not allow members of a family to alter multiple separate accounts.”

For several years, active-duty members have been able to terminate residential property leases and auto leases. But while current law specifically prevents early termination penalties for auto leases, there is no such provision for residential leases. The new bill would extend protection not only to residential leases, but also to professional, business or agricultural rental leases.

The student loan provision of the bill would require a school to refund the tuition and fees paid by a student if their absence from school is the result of military service, and if the student received no academic credit for the enrollment period because of the absence.