President Joe Biden before boarding Marine One on the southern lawn of the White House on February 16, 2021.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A multi-state group of attorney generals on Friday sent a letter to Congress calling for the adoption of two resolutions calling on President Biden to cancel up to $ 50,000 in federal student loan debt.
The letter is signed by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. He supports Senate Resolution 46 and House Resolution 100, which ask Biden to use executive action to cancel up to $ 50,000 in education debt per borrower.
“The weight of insurmountable student loan debt has paralyzed household finances across the country and widened the racial wealth gap,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who led the coalition, in a statement.
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Support for forgiving a larger amount of debt per borrower comes just days after Biden said he would not cancel up to $ 50,000 in student loan debt, but said he was still considering canceling $ 10,000. Still, debt forgiveness advocates, including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., And borrowers themselves continued to pressure Biden to erase a larger amount. .
Certainly, many argue that canceling student loan debt is unfair to those who have paid off their loans, and that canceling a lower amount is a more targeted approach.
The letter says that many borrowers struggling with student loan debt are victims of for-profit colleges, have been hit hard by the pandemic, and have little relief if their debt burden is unmanageable. Student loan debts generally cannot be canceled in bankruptcy, and very few people have been able to get relief through current programs, such as the forgiveness of the public service loan.