Marco Rubio wants to defer your student-loan payments, but only if you survived a terrorist attack

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL).

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• Senator Marco Rubio reintroduced a bill to postpone student loan payments for survivors of terrorist attacks.
• He first introduced the law in 2016 after the gunfights at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
• Proponents said his bill was insufficient to resolve the $ 1.7 trillion student debt crisis.
• Check out Insider’s business page for more stories.

Since the student loan payment hiatus was due to be lifted in three months during the pandemic, Florida Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bill to postpone these payments for an additional year – but only if the borrower survived a terrorist attack.

Last week, Rubio reintroduced the Terrorism Survivor Student Loan Deferment Act, which would allow terrorist attack survivors to automatically defer their state student loan payments. He first introduced this law in 2016 after the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando to aid survivors of the shooting.

“We should do everything in our power to help survivors of a terrorist attack get their lives back on track,” Rubio said in a statement. “While survivors of a terrorist attack like those of the terrible shooting at the Pulse nightclub are entitled to relief, the law does not automatically recognize these types of extraordinary circumstances. Giving survivors time to regroup by delaying their student loan. “Payments are just common sense.”

According to a press release, Rubio’s legislation would:

• Give survivors a year-long break from paying student loans;
• instruct the Minister of Education to put in place anti-fraud safeguards;
• And name the federal agency tasked with investigating the terrorist attack to identify the victims concerned.

Any survivor on a federal loan would be eligible for this deferred payment.

Student loan advocates criticized Rubio for failing to cope with the $ 1.7 trillion student debt crisis. Student Debt Crisis, an organization pushing for student debt relief, wrote on Twitter last week that Rubio’s law “is wrong” and that Americans need a serious solution to the student debt crisis.

However, this isn’t the first law Rubio put in place to in some way address loan waiver. Insider reported in April that Rubio and New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan tabled a bill to make it easier for service members to make loans under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which uses income-based borrowers Applying for repayment plans this could lead to loan relief after 10 years.

PSLF still has a 98% rejection rate, so the legislation would likely be ineffective until the Department of Education implements reforms to the program.

Rubio’s office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Rubio’s legislation comes as Democratic legislature urges President Joe Biden to cancel student debt of $ 50,000 per borrower – something they think will be far more effective for borrowers than debt only for certain groups of people like survivors of terrorist attacks to enact.

At an event hosted by Student Debt Crisis, Senate Majority Chairman Chuck Schumer said he had met with Biden on the matter and told him they would be relentlessly pushing for the student debt to be canceled.

“We said, ‘We’ll stay tuned until you do this,’ and to his [Biden’s] Credit, he said, ‘Go.’ He spoke of 10,000 – that’s not enough, “said Schumer during the event.” We’re keeping him under pressure. “

source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/marco-rubio-wants-to-defer-your-student-loan-payments-but-only-if-you-survived-a-terrorist-attack/