“The President has and continues to support canceling $10,000 of federal student loan debt per person as a response to the Covid crisis,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing. She added that that the President is “calling on Congress to draft the proposal,” and “looks forward to signing it.”
In one of his first acts in office, Biden extended the pause on student loan payments and interest, a Covid relief benefit put in place by Congress last year that had already been renewed by the Trump administration. Federal student loan borrowers won’t have to make payments until October 1 at the earliest.
But some Democratic lawmakers are hoping for more. Schumer and Warren, along with Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, led dozens of other Democrats in reintroducing a bicameral resolution Thursday that calls on Biden to cancel $50,000 per borrower — something they argue that he has the executive power to do.
A similar resolution was introduced last year calling on the Trump administration to forgive student loan debt — but former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos slammed that proposal as “government gift giving.” House Democrats included a provision to cancel $10,000 per borrower in a sweeping Covid relief bill passed in May that was never taken up in the then Republican-led Senate.
Schumer said at a press conference earlier on Thursday that he and Warren had a 45-minute conversation with Biden and his advisers a few weeks ago to discuss canceling student debt. The Senate majority leader said he was optimistic that the administration would act if there’s enough pressure from the American people.
“They have been extremely open to listening to us,” he said.
Proposals go back to the Democratic primaries
Warren, as well as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, have been pushing for some kind of student debt cancellation plan since 2019, when they were running in the Democratic presidential primary. Biden put out a policy proposal to forgive $10,000 per borrower only…
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