A group of lawmakers expressed support for the Biden Administration’s student loan payment pause extension while calling on President Joe Biden cancel $50,000 in federal student debt for borrowers.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) joined Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) in issuing a statement supporting the extension.
“We’re pleased the Biden administration has heeded our call to extend the pause on student loan payments,” the legislators noted. “As we stated in our Dec. 8 letter, the pause on federal student loan payments, interest, and collections has improved borrowers’ economic security, allowing them to invest in their families, save for emergencies and pay down other debt. Extending the pause will help millions of Americans make ends meet, especially as we overcome the Omicron variant.”
The lawmakers said they are continuing to call on President Biden to act to cancel $50,000 in student debt as a means of aiding efforts to close the racial wealth gap for borrowers and accelerate the nation’s economic recovery.
Via prior correspondence to Biden, the legislators cited data from the Roosevelt Institute regarding the adverse economic impact of restarting student loan payments and requested without delay the cancellation of up to $50,000 of student debt for borrowers.
According to the Roosevelt Institute data the lawmakers shared, if student loan payments resumed as scheduled on Feb. 1, 2022, $7 billion a month and $85 billion annually would be stripped from more than 18 million student loan borrowers’ budgets.