Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, is increasing pressure on President Biden to act quickly on a plan to cancel $ 50,000 in student loan debt for each borrower, a progressive priority.
Congressional Democrats have proposed a non-binding resolution asking Biden to use his executive authority to cancel about 80% of student loan debt contracted by about 36 million borrowers. Many are low-income people, including millions of black and Hispanic students, disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
Biden, already arguing with Republicans about his $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal, gave his support to legislation that calls for $ 10,000 in relief.
It is not expected to change quickly, according to advisers to Democratic senators familiar with the government’s position.
Biden “continues to support” student debt cancellation, wrote White House press secretary Jen Psaki on twitter. “Our team is evaluating whether there is any action he can take through executive action and he would like to be given the opportunity to sign a bill sent to him by Congress,” she added.
The resolution, which would have no legal effect if passed, calls for cancellation for all borrowers, while an earlier Democratic proposal limited the program to people earning less than $ 125,000 a year.
Speaking during a news conference outside the Capitol on Thursday morning, Mr. Schumer said: “We are not going to give up until we make it, until $ 50,000 of the debt is forgiven for all students in the country.”
Most Republicans oppose the movement, making it difficult for them to pass the Senate; And the proposal has its political dangers because it essentially chooses winners and losers – leaving borrowers who have recently paid their debts and future borrowers without any relief.
An economic working document published by the Roosevelt Institute presents debt forgiveness explicitly in terms of racial justice. The total percentage of black families who would benefit would be higher than white families, and the relative gains to the net worth of these families are much greater, the researchers found.
The legal argument for debt cancellation by executive action depends on an approval of the Higher Education Act of 1965 that gives the secretary of education the power to “settle, waive or release” federal student loan debts.
In December, Schumer, who represents New York, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, who has long supported the plan, wrote in a joint article last week that canceling debts would give “black and brown families across the country. a much better chance of building financial security. “
It was, they added, “the most effective executive action available to provide massive stimulus to our economy”.