President Joe Biden. Drew Angerer / Getty Images
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Last April, Biden asked the Ministry of Education to write a note about his ability to eliminate student debt.
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Documents from October revealed that the note had existed since April 2021, but had not yet been published.
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Lawmakers called on Biden to release the note to provide reassurance about broad student debt relief.
On April 1, 2021, President Joe Biden asked the Department of Education to prepare a note on his legal ability to cancel student debt.
On November 1, Insider received edited documents from the Debt Collective – the nation’s first debtors’ union – showing that the note had existed since April 5, 2021, and was circulated to White House officials the same day.
Now, a year after the note was made and two extensions of the student loan break later, borrowers and lawmakers are looking for answers.
“While I welcome the extension of the moratorium on student loans, I continue to believe that we owe the 43 million Americans with student loan debt to cancel that debt completely,” Minnesota spokesman Ilhan Omar told Insider. “Unfortunately, a year after it was promised, we have not yet seen the note that the administration promised to cancel the student debt.
When Biden was on the trail of the campaign, his intentions to tackle the $ 1.7 trillion student debt crisis seemed clear. He promised voters he would approve $ 10,000 in student loan forgiveness for each federal borrower, and said it would be a top priority for him in reforming long-suspended loan forgiveness programs.
While he has taken steps on the latter, the former remains unfulfilled, and borrowers and lawmakers are becoming increasingly frustrated as Biden delays the promise that many voters are counting on.
In October, before the edits were released, Omar urged his Democrat colleagues to give the president a two-week deadline to submit the note. In January, she joined 84 of her colleagues in demanding not only the release of the note, but also an extension of the break in student loan payments, which Biden eventually implemented last week until August 31st.
The story continues
But more than a year has passed and Omar told the Insider that it is long overdue for Biden to be transparent with his constituents.
“When the leaders of the Progressive Group and I met with the president earlier this month, we stressed the importance of not just stopping, but canceling student debt,” Omar said.
“The president has every right to cancel this debt,” she added, “and we hope he will.”
When Insider asked for comment, a spokesman said: “The Ministry of Education continues to assess its ability to implement extensive debt cancellation through enforcement action.”
The White House “chose to sit on its hands while families suffer financially”
While most of the student debt note was edited before Insider received it, the documents revealed some information about the communication process in the administration around the creation of the note.
For example, an employee of the Department of Education wrote that based on internal emails in April 2021, the department “is likely to prepare an updated version of the note prepared in February”, which suggests that the administration may sit on a note even longer.
Revised Student Debt Cancellation Note from the Education Department on April 5, 2021. The Debt Collective
Braxton Bruington, the Debt Collector’s spokesman, told the Insider at the time that choosing not to release the note was a “political decision” and he reiterated that statement in a statement this month.
“It’s been a year since the White House was informed of their power to widely abolish student debt, and yet they have chosen to sit on their hands while families suffer financially,” Bruington said. “It is clear that the delay in canceling student debt is not due to a wrong legal analysis, but rather a lack of political will – which is even less logical, as the majority of Americans support the cancellation of student debt. It’s time for Biden to take action. “
After Biden’s fourth extension of the student loan break last week, Insider said neither Democrats nor Republicans were happy with the relief.
While the GOP wanted broad relief to end, Democrats wanted even more relief, saying that if Biden could continue to extend the break, there was no reason he could not cancel student debt and make permanent reforms in the student loan industry.
It is unclear whether there will be more relief for student loan borrowers after September.
“I am glad that the president is extending the moratorium on student loans,” Omar wrote on Twitter. “Once this extension expires, he must extend it again. And then, again. And then again, and again … you know what, why don’t we just cancel it?
Read the original article in Business Insider
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