President Donald Trump announced at the White House Friday that the government would suspend and waive all interest on federally held student loans for 60 days as the nation continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve instructed them to take that action immediately,” Trump said, promising to extend the waivers longer than 60 days if needed.
“Borrowers should contact their lenders,” Trump said, adding that it was “going to make a lot of students happy.”
The news was detailed in a statement from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Federally held student loans will now have their interest rates set to 0 percent for 60 days and borrowers can stop their payments without penalty.
“Right now, everyone should be focused on staying safe and healthy, not worrying about their student loan balance growing,” DeVos said in a statement.
The Department of Education will also grant a waiver to any state who requests a bypass of federally mandated testing requirements for the 2019-2020 year.
“They’ve been through a lot … a lot of students will be extremely happy,” Trump said after announcing the testing waiver. “Some probably not, the ones that work hard maybe not, but it’s one of those things, very unfortunate circumstance.”
“Neither students nor teachers need to be focused on high-stakes tests during this difficult time,” DeVos said in a statement.