Democrats Urge Biden to Extend Student Loan Payment Pause 6 Months

• 64 Democrats sent Biden a letter asking him to extend the student loan payment break by six months.
• Led by Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, they say borrowers are still recovering from the pandemic.
• Education Sec. Miguel Cardona has indicated to extend the break but has not definitively said so.

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Borrowers with student loans did not have to repay them during the pandemic, but this payment hiatus is slated to end in late September. Although Education Minister Miguel Cardona has hinted at another extension of the break, details have not yet been released.

64 Democrats want to give borrowers security – and at least another six months free from student loan payments.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts MP Ayanna Pressley, and Connecticut MP Joe Courtney led 60 other Democratic colleagues who sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Wednesday by asking him to extend the student loan payment hiatus until March 31, 2022 or until the economy returns to pre-pandemic employment, whichever is longer.

The Democrats wrote in the letter they received from Insider that the hiatus in student loan payments and interest had brought “significant relief” to borrowers during the pandemic.

“Borrowers have benefited significantly from the prolonged payment hiatus by taking the opportunity to pay off other debts, easing financial pressures from lost jobs or income losses, and supporting the needs of their families,” the letter said.

However, lawmakers added that the “planned resumption of student loan payments in October could seriously affect our economic recovery.”

The letter noted that while the economy is recovering from the pandemic, women and people of color are not being equally reached. It cited a Brandeis University study that found that the middle black borrower owed 95% of their debt twenty years after starting college, compared to just 6% for the middle white borrower.

Insider reported last week that women can expect a salary of $ 35,000 right after graduation – not much more than the average debt of female students, according to the American Association of University Women.

Warren was one of the Democrats who sent a letter to the CEOs of all student loan service providers on Monday asking for information on how best to prepare borrowers to resume loan payments and warned of the “catastrophic” consequences of borrowing without Repayment will be repaid again correct assistance.

Cardona said during a Senate hearing last week that he was continuing talks on extending the payment hiatus last September, but the Education Department declined to provide further details on those talks.

This letter is the Democrats’ latest attempt to protect borrowers. Warren and Schumer lead efforts to ask Biden to scrap student debt of $ 50,000 per borrower by using his executive powers – which the Department of Education and Justice is currently reviewing.

The Democrats also recognized these reviews in their letter to Biden, calling for them to be completed quickly, but given the fast approaching expiry of the payment hiatus, they want Biden to extend it first.

“President Biden can and must remove student debts with the stroke of a pen. We urge him to act,” Pressley said in a statement. “In the meantime, extending this payment hiatus will provide significant added relief for millions of borrowers. We cannot turn our backs on these families while we work towards equitable economic recovery.”

source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/democrats-urge-biden-to-extend-student-loan-payment-pause-6-months/