More than 90 Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to President Biden on Thursday calling for an extension of the pause on federal student loan payments through the end of the year.
Democrats in both the House and Senate signed the letter, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Pramila Jayapal of Washington. Members of the progressive “Squad” signed the letter as well, including Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
“Given the fast-approaching deadline for borrowers to resume payments, your administration must act as quickly as possible to extend the pause and make clear to the American public your intention to cancel a meaningful amount of student debt. We look forward to supporting your administration in getting it done,” the letter reads.
The current extension is set to expire on May 1 after the moratorium on loan repayments was first introduced in early 2020 by the Trump administration in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The pause keeps interest rates at 0 percent and suspends debt-collection efforts. It applies to more than 36 million Americans who have student loans that are held by the federal government.
President Biden issued the most recent extension of the moratorium in December, amid concerns about a surge in Covid-19 cases as the highly transmissible Omicron variant swept in the U.S.
“We know that millions of student loan borrowers are still coping with the impacts of the pandemic and need some more time before resuming payments,” Biden said in a statement at the time.
Now, the lawmakers said “skyrocketing costs for necessities like food and gas” will pose an obstacle for repayment, saying “restarting repayment will financially destabilize many borrowers and their families, and will cause hardship for many who could not afford repayment.”
The collective debt of the 36 million debtors totals more than $1.37 trillion, Education Department data show. Roughly one-third of borrowers are in default or delinquency. The average monthly payment is $400.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in December that keeping the policy in place until May would allow for repayment plans responsive to the financial needs of students, such as an income-driven repayment plan.
Cardona said the pause “will provide critical relief to borrowers who continue to face financial hardships as a result of the pandemic, and will allow our administration to assess the impacts of omicron on student borrowers.”
Meanwhile, when the administration extended the pause from September 2021 to January 2021, officials vowed that it would be the final extension of the relief.
The group of Democratic lawmakers also called on the president to “cancel student debt now,” arguing that cancellation is “one of the most powerful ways to address racial and economic equity issues.”
“The student loan system mirrors many of the inequalities that plague American society and widens the racial wealth gap. Black students in particular borrow more to attend college, borrow more often while they are in school, and have a harder time paying their debt off than their white peers,” they wrote.
“They are more than three times as likely to go into default within four years on their federal loans as white borrowers — and face wage garnishment, tax refund withholding, and federal benefit offsets,” the letter added. “While Latino borrowers often have lower loan balances than their white peers, they are more likely to struggle in repaying their loans, and have some of the lowest post-education earnings among all racial or ethnic groups.”
The White House said last year it had asked Cardona to determine whether Biden has the authority to unilaterally cancel student loans across the board. Progressives have called for Cardona’s memo to be publicly released.