President Biden has no plans to extend student loan relief, with payments slated to return beginning February 1. Additionally, the White House has not offered any plan to forgive student loan debt — a major agenda item of the far-left Democrat caucus, which the Biden administration has ignored.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki admitted last week that the president has no plans to extend student loan relief, which began under former President Trump last year due to the Chinese coronavirus and coinciding mandates and restrictions, compromising millions of Americans’ jobs and ability to earn a living. The forbearance period for student loans end January 31, 2022.
“Is the Biden administration considering extending that student loan payment pause? I know there’s — if not, besides legislation that probably won’t pass, what are some of the options that would help these people?” a reporter asked last week.
“So, in the coming weeks, we will release more details about our plans and will engage directly with federal student loan borrowers to ensure they have the resources they need and are in the appropriate repayment plan,” Psaki said during the press briefing, indicating that the administration has no intention of extending it any further.
“We’re still assessing the impact of the Omicron variant. But a smooth transition back into repayment is a high priority for the administration,” she added, asserting that the Department of Education is communicating with borrowers to “help them to prepare” to resume payments. Psaki added:
We are preparing for a range of steps here. These steps have provided, I would just note, more than $12.5 billion in discharges to nearly 640,000 borrowers, plus tens of billions more saved by the 41 million borrowers who have benefited from the extended student loan payment pause.
“But it expires February 1, so, right now, we’re just making a range of preparations,” she said.
All the while, Biden has ignored his own party’s calls to cancel student debt — something progressive politicians have continued to bring up on social media.
“89% of student borrowers say they aren’t financially ready to resume student loan payments & 27% will be spending at least a third of their income on payments when they resume. Student debt is dragging down our communities and economy,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said on Saturday, urging Biden to cancel student debt:
“President Biden should #CancelStudentDebt now and help millions of Americans struggling under this burden,” Schumer added:
However, canceling student debt has largely fallen to the wayside in the first year of Biden’s presidency. In February, Biden balked at the prospect of canceling up to $50,000 in student loan debt, admitting he would “not make that happen.” Nonetheless, he did say he would be “prepared to write off the $10,000 debt,” but that never came to fruition.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.