Student Loan Forgiveness Top Lawmakers Urge Biden To Cancel ‘Meaningful’

With millions of borrowers on track to resume repayment on their student loans in just over 30 days, top lawmakers in Congress wrote to President Biden on Thursday urging him to extend the payment pause to the end of the year and enact broad student loan forgiveness through executive action.“We are writing to urge you to act now to extend the pause on federally-held student loan payments until at least the end of the year and to provide meaningful student debt cancellation,” wrote several Democratic lawmakers including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) who chairs the House Progressive Caucus.“The payment pause has been a significant federal investment throughout the pandemic, providing essential relief to millions of families during the economic and public health crisis and saving them an average of $393 per month,” they wrote. “Restarting repayment will financially destabilize many borrowers and their families, and will cause hardship for many who could not afford repayment.”Federal student loan payments have been paused due to the pandemic since March 2020, and are scheduled to resume on May 1. Hundreds of student loan borrower advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers have been calling on Biden to extend the pause again in light of historic inflation and sky-high gas prices. The lawmakers also called on Biden to use executive action to enact broad student loan forgiveness. “Canceling a meaningful amount of student debt will provide long-term benefits to individuals and the economy, helping families buy their first homes, open a small business, or invest in their retirement,” they wrote. “More broadly, canceling student debt would add tens of billions of dollars in GDP growth. Canceling student debt is one of the most powerful ways to address racial and economic equity issues.”Interestingly, the lawmakers did not urge Biden to cancel a specific amount of federal student loan debt — a departure from their previous calls for Biden to cancel $50,000 or more in student loan debt for every borrower. The subtle change in messaging suggests an acknowledgment that Biden may be reluctant to cancel such high amounts of debt, but could be more open to lower levels of relief. Biden did say he would support $10,000 in student loan forgiveness for every borrower during his presidential campaign. The lawmakers also indicated an openness to the mechanism that would enact broad student loan cancellation. “Although there may be different ideas about the best way to structure cancellation, we all agree that you should cancel student debt now,” they wrote. Indeed, President Biden may have several different legal options for enacting broad student loan forgiveness, and the lawmakers seem to be deferring to the Biden administration to utilize the method that officials would be most comfortable with. All data is taken from the source: http://forbes.com Article Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adammins... #student #newschannel #newstodayoncnn #newsworld #newsworldbbc #usanewstoday #