Biden Admin Weighs Extending Student Loans Payment Pause
The Biden administration on Tuesday is weighing to extend the pause on the student loans payment weeks before the moratorium on the said issue is set to expire.
The information was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Department of Education to NBC News on Tuesday, claiming that President Joe Biden's administration will announce whether the pause for student loans payment will be extended.
This, despite after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed last week that the administration will not extend the student loan relief set to end on January 31, 2022, Forbes reported.
Administration officials also warned the borrowers that they should be prepared to pay back their student loans by February.
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President Biden Not Yet Decided on Extending Student Loans Payment Pause: Psaki
Although the spokesperson from the Department of Education said that the administration is weighing to extend the pause in the student loans payment, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that President Joe Biden is not yet deciding the move.
Psaki made her comments during her press briefing on Tuesday, saying that Biden has not yet decided whether he will allow millions of Americans to "forego" student loan payments at no additional cost after January 31.
It can be recalled that Biden extended the moratorium for student loans payments in August. However, Psaki said on December 10 that the administration's priority is the repayment of the said loans.
"We're still assessing the impact of the Omicron variant, but a smooth transition back into repayment is a high priority for the administration," Psaki said during that time.
About 44 million Americans owe the federal government for their student loans amounting to around $1.6 trillion student loans.
The federal student loan moratorium began in March 2020 after former President Donald Trump signed the CARES ACT into law. The said law paused the payments for the loan until September 2020. Trump then extended the student loan payment through January 2021.
Since then, President Biden has taken executive actions to extend the pause on student loans payment until January 31, 2022. During that time, The Department of Education pointed out that January 31 next year will be the final extension of the payment pause.
President Biden Pressured to Extend and Cancel Student Loans
Although President Biden has not yet decided on whether he will allow the extension of student loans payment, the chief executive is currently facing pressures from Democrats and progressives to pause and cancel a portion of the student loans, including Elizabeth Warren contending that people are still "struggling" due to pandemic.
Restarting student loan debt payments would take more than $85 billion dollars out of our economy next year. We're still in a pandemic and people are still struggling. @POTUS shouldn’t restart payments and should use his authority to #CancelStudentDebt.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 21, 2021
Progressive lawmakers and activists urged the president to forgive up to $50,000 per borrower using executive action. They also pointed out that Biden has the legal authority to cancel a portion of student loans even without congressional approval.
However, President Biden said that he does not believe that he has the power to cancel student loans unilaterally but indicated that he would support Congress if it passed a bill canceling $10,000. Furthermore, the White House noted that the Department of Education is also looking into Biden's legal authority to cancel student loans.
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This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written By: Joshua Summers
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