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Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal student loan debt owed by tens of thousands of disabled military veterans will be erased under a directive President Donald Trump signed Wednesday. Trump ordered the Education Department to "eliminate every penny of federal student loan debt" owed by American veterans who are completely and permanently disabled. (Superville, 8/21)

Trump said he was “taking executive action to ensure that our wounded warriors are not saddled with mountains of student debt,” vowing to “eliminate every penny of federal student loan debt owed by American veterans who are completely and permanently disabled.” “The debt of these disabled veterans will be entirely erased,” Trump said during remarks at a veterans convention in Louisville, Ky. “It will be gone.” The move will wipe out “hundreds of millions” in student loan debt owed by more than 25,000 disabled veterans, Trump said. The average amount forgiven would be about $30,000, he said. (Stratford, 8/21)

About half of the roughly 50,000 disabled veterans who are qualified to have their federal student loan debt forgiven have received the benefit because of an application process that has proven burdensome, the administration said. The memo directs the government to develop an "expedited" process, which the Department of Education said would mean loans are forgiven unless veterans opt out. (Behrmann and Kenning, 8/21)

Veterans who are 100 percent disabled are already eligible to have their federal student loan debt completely erased, but government officials have struggled to get all of that group to take advantage of the program. (Shane, 8/21)

Last year, the U.S. Department of Education began a data matching process with the Veterans Administration to identify permanently disabled veterans who are eligible for student loan relief. The process has resulted in more than $650 million in student loan relief for more than 22,000 eligible veterans since April 2018. (Thornton, 8/21)

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has instructed the VA to buy “a lot” of an anti-depressant to help prevent suicide in veterans, but FDA hasn't approved that use for the drug, which comes with severe warnings that it could be dangerous for many users. The drug, Spravato is produced by Johnson & Johnson, founded by the great-grandfather of Woody Johnson, a major Trump fundraiser and current U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. (Owermohle and Karlin-Smith, 8/21)

The president said the drug — developed by a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson — has shown a “tremendously positive” effect in early testing and he is optimistic it can help with mental health problems in the veterans community. VA research shows that nationwide, about 20 veterans a day die by suicide. “This is a form of a stimulant where, if someone is really in trouble from the standpoint of suicide, it can do something,” Trump said. “It’s pretty well known, it just came out. We have calls in to Johnson & Johnson now, we’ve been talking to them for two months on buying a lot of it.” (Shane, 8/21)