Congress Advances Stimulus What It Means For Student Loan Borrowers

Congress is taking significant steps to advance the passage of a massive stimulus package pushed by President Biden. On Friday, both the House and the Senate gave formal approval to advance the proposed stimulus legislation via the budget reconciliation process, which would allow the package to pass the Senate with a simple majority. Most major legislation requires 60 votes to pass the Senate, but passing spending legislation through budget reconciliation only requires a majority vote. Democrats hold narrow majorities in both chambers, with only a 50-50 split in the Senate (Vice President Kamala Harris would break any ties). The $1.9 trillion stimulus package includes $1,400 stimulus checks on top of $600 checks already approved in December (for a total of $2,000). The proposal also includes extended federal unemployment benefits, paid sick leave, and investments in public health infrastructure and pandemic relief programs, including substantial funding for vaccine deployment. Democrats also unveiled a new proposal late last week to provide up to $3,600 in child tax credits to families, which would effectively be provided as cash payments. Democratic congressional leaders have indicated that they intend to try to roll this additional program into the larger stimulus package. President Biden excluded student loan relief and student debt cancellation from his initial stimulus proposal, leaving consumer rights advocates disappointed. There had been some speculation that in the process of allowing amendments to the package during the initial Senate debate on the details, student loan relief (including student loan forgiveness) could be inserted into the bill. But that did not happen. As it stands, the stimulus package will not include any student loan relief. The Biden administration has consistently stated that the White House will push Congress to pass legislation providing for some level of student loan forgiveness for every borrower. Biden has previously mentioned a $10,000 figure. Separate, stand-alone student loan reform legislation could be an attractive route for lawmakers given the broad array of student loan relief bills that were introduced in the 2019-2020 Congress. There were proposals to reform and improve the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, simplify income-driven repayment plans, revamp the Borrower Defense to Repayment program for borrowers defrauded by their schools, reform the bankruptcy code to allow student loan discharges, and enact private student loan relief. President Biden has expressed support for many of these measures. Comprehensive student loan reform to address all of these issues at once, in addition to broad student loan forgiveness, could be a more feasible route for lawmakers to tackle student debt. Last week, the Biden administration expressed openness to the idea of cancelling student loan debt via executive action. All data is taken from the source: http://forbes.com Article Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adammins... #student #newsdonaldtrump #usnewsworldreport#newsworldabc #newsworld #bbcnewsworld #