{"id":444335,"date":"2021-12-22T18:59:50","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T18:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=faa9675a910e0cfbe1ed0820329b7044"},"modified":"2021-12-22T18:59:50","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T18:59:50","slug":"facing-scrutiny-biden-administration-extends-student-loan-pause-until-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/12\/22\/facing-scrutiny-biden-administration-extends-student-loan-pause-until-may\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing Scrutiny, Biden Administration Extends Student Loan Pause Until May"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Activists<\/a>

On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it is extending the pause on student loan payments through May 1 \u2013 a sharp reversal of its previous stance, likely due to increased pressure from debt cancellation advocates as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 sweeps the U.S. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that millions of student loan borrowers are still coping with the impacts of the pandemic and need some more time before resuming payments,\u201d President Joe Biden said <\/span>in a statement<\/span><\/a> announcing the 90-day extension.<\/span><\/p>\n

Payments were previously set to restart on February 1. When the Education Department last lengthened the payment freeze <\/span>in August<\/span><\/a>, the agency said that it was the \u201cfinal extension.\u201d Earlier this month, <\/span>Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that<\/span><\/a> \u201ca smooth transition back into repayment is a high priority for the administration.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Psaki\u2019s statement sparked fury from progressive lawmakers and debt activists who have been pressuring Biden to take action on student debt relief since he took office \u2013 whether in the form of a pause extension, loan forgiveness or both.<\/span><\/p>\n

Debt cancellation advocates celebrated the Biden administration\u2019s move on Wednesday, and amplified their calls for further action.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major win for 45 million student debtors and their families,\u201d Debt Collective spokesperson Braxton Brewington <\/span>said in a statement<\/span><\/a>. \u201cNext, the Biden administration should permanently relieve this financial burden on families and the economy by using his executive authority to eliminate all federal student debt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Progressive lawmakers also celebrated the extension. \u201cExtending the student loan payment pause is a major relief for millions of Americans during this pandemic. I appreciate everyone who organized and pushed President Biden to take action, and I\u2019m grateful he listened to our call,\u201d <\/span>wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren<\/span><\/a> (D-Massachusetts). \u201cNext, [Biden] should #CancelStudentDebt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Representatives <\/span>Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts)<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Mondaire Jones (D-New York)<\/span><\/a> also called on Biden to cancel student debt.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the campaign trail, Biden promised to cancel up to $10,000 in debt for each borrower \u2013 but even though <\/span>legal experts<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>debt advocates<\/span><\/a> and potentially even an unreleased memo from <\/span>his own Education Department<\/span><\/a> have said that the president has the legal authority to cancel student debt with only the power of the executive branch, he has so far refused to do so. Instead, his administration has <\/span>been shifting<\/span><\/a> the blame onto Congress to absolve itself from responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

According <\/span>to <\/span>Insider<\/span><\/i> reporter Ayelet Sheffey<\/span><\/a>, Vice President Kamala Harris said in an interview set to air on Sunday that the administration must \u201cfigure out how we can creatively relieve the pressure that students are feeling because of their student loan debt\u201d in anticipation of the 2022 midterm elections. Early midterm predictions are looking bleak for Democrats, and sapping income from millions of borrowers after promising to take action on the issue will likely only make their chances worse. <\/span><\/p>\n

For many borrowers, debt relief has been growing more urgent by the day. A recent report done on behalf of Warren and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), leading advocates for student debt relief, found that <\/span>restarting payments<\/span><\/a> will cause borrowers to collectively lose $85 billion a year. According to estimates by the Federal Reserve, borrowers hold <\/span>$1.75 trillion in debt<\/span><\/a> in total, making student loan debt an enormous burden on the economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Survey <\/span>data from the Student Debt Crisis Center found that<\/span><\/a> the vast majority of borrowers \u2013 about 89 percent \u2013 say they aren\u2019t prepared for payments to restart, with many survey respondents reporting that payments would take away a third or even half of their income.<\/span><\/p>\n

With only a 90-day extension, the pressure is still on for many people with loans. But the extension of the payment pause may temporarily <\/span>lighten the financial load<\/span><\/a> for families who are also facing the end of the expanded child tax credit due to Sen. Joe Manchin\u2019s (D-West Virginia) <\/span>unceremonious killing<\/span><\/a> of the Build Back Better Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) <\/span>said on Instagram on Tuesday<\/span><\/a> that public pressure on student loans is working to help sway the administration. \u201cThey were IRONCLAD about restarting payments in Jan as recently as a week ago,\u201d she pointed out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawmakers and <\/span>advocates<\/span><\/a> had increased their calls for Biden to take action on student debt after a spokesperson for the Education Department hinted that the administration was <\/span>considering the extension<\/span><\/a> this week. \u201cToday would be a great day for President Biden and Vice President Harris to #CancelStudentDebt,\u201d <\/span>Schumer wrote on Twitter<\/span><\/a>. Democrats <\/span>like Sen. Jeff Merkley (Oregon)<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Rep. Adriano Espaillat (New York)<\/span><\/a> also emphasized the urgency of debt forgiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Latest \u2013 Truthout<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Activists<\/a><\/p>\n

Debt advocates celebrated the extension but urged Biden to follow up on a campaign promise to cancel student loans.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37957,4704,9742,4845,51,2804,4,6201],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444336,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444335\/revisions\/444336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}