Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, speaks during a press conference on student loan debt outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Thursday, February 4, 2021.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Democrats in Congress are increasing pressure on the Biden administration to cut up to $ 50,000 in debt for federal student loan borrowers.
On Thursday, a group of lawmakers, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Reintroduced a resolution making the Education Division enforce Existing authority to relieve tens of millions of people in debt from students has been pushed. The Democrats claimed the move would help narrow the racial wealth gap in the U.S. and put more money into an economy struggling under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The student debt crisis has always been a racial and economic justice issue,” Pressley told reporters Thursday.
President Joe Biden, who as a candidate said he would cut up to $ 10,000 in student debt, said he wanted Congress to approve of the policy. Forgiveness Democrats urge him to take executive action as they may face challenges if the debt is reduced by Congress.
Warren described debt relief of up to $ 50,000 as “the most effective executive action” Biden can take to “stimulate this economy” and “close the race and prosperity gap.”
Along with Warren, Schumer and Pressley, at least 14 other Senators and 45 representatives signed the resolution, which was reintroduced on Thursday. The movement has gained momentum as the resolution was only presented in the Senate during the previous Congress.
Schumer said he and Warren had met with Biden on the issue and were “pushing the president and his people”.
According to the government, the federal government had more than $ 1.5 trillion in student debt for approximately 43 million borrowers in the fourth quarter of last year. Up to 36 million people could be relieved of debt relief of up to $ 50,000.
Since the passage of the CARES bill last March, the federal government has suspended student loan payments and interest accumulation in order to provide relief during the pandemic. The Biden administration extended the forbearance to September.
However, the president has not included debt relief in his $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus bailout package that Democrats plan to adopt in the coming weeks.
The escalating credit crunch became a focus of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary as Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Both made debt relief a key campaign plan. When Biden introduced limited debt relief as an election policy, it was seen as a victory for Warren and the more progressive party members.
Critics of Warren and Sanders’ policies during the campaign said their plans would do the most to help high-income Americans who have amassed heaps of debt while reaching more than a grade. Democrats hope to address those concerns by capping relief at $ 50,000.
Schumer and Warren wrote in a CNBC statement last month that debt relief would help older Americans as well as younger people. They found that 6.3 million borrowers between the ages of 50 and 64 are paying back a loved one’s loans.
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