WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden has signaled he can forgive a student loan debt and further extend the federal moratorium on repayment, a lawmaker said on Wednesday.
The White House was significantly more measured about Biden’s position, but such moves would benefit many of the $ 43 trillion Americans who have $ 1.6 trillion in student loans, according to federal data. It would also be a victory for the democratic and progressive leaders who have long pressured Biden to fulfill his promise to run for president in 2020 that he will “immediately” cancel up to $ 10,000 in student debt as president.
Biden’s remarks came during a wide-ranging meeting Monday at the White House with seven members of the Spanish-speaking congressional group, according to Tony Cardenas, D-California, who was among them. He said in an interview Wednesday that he had asked Biden to extend the moratorium on debt payments until this year, instead of allowing it to expire on August 31st.
“He immediately smiled and said, ‘I’ve expanded in the past and you’ll like what I do next,’ Cardenas said. So I said, “Okay, great. Next question.'”
Cardenas said he had then asked for forgiveness of at least $ 10,000 in debt to each student, which he said the group believed Biden could do using executive powers. This would rule out the need for legislation from Congress, where there is republican opposition.
“He said, ‘Yes, I’m researching to do something on this front,'” Cardenas said. “And he smiled, too, and said, ‘You’ll like what I’m doing about it.’
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., sounded similarly optimistic on Wednesday. “I think the president is moving in our direction. “My conversations with him and his team have been very fruitful lately,” Sumer said.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that during the meeting, “what he reiterated was that he would make a decision before” the current suspension of repayment ends on August 31. She said Biden was “considering other executive options that should offer relief to people who have student loans.”
Extensive student loan forgiveness is anathema to many Republicans and others concerned about government spending during a huge federal deficit.
“Desperate polls call for desperate measures: Democrats are considering forgiving trillions of student loans,” R-Utah Sen. Mitt Romney mockingly wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “Other bribery proposals: Forgiveness for car loans?” Forgive credit card debt? Forgive mortgages? And to tax the wealth of the super-rich to pay for all this. What could go wrong? ”
Cardenas said Biden did not specify when he would take action or detail what he would do other than say “Soon.”
“I had a strong feeling, as did my colleagues, that he was happy to answer these questions with his body language, with his words, with the smile on his face, and he encouraged us that we would like what he did,” he said. Cardenas.
Cardenas said the question of whether debt forgiveness should be limited to higher-income students, which could limit the cost of the proposal, was not raised during the White House meeting. He also said that when Biden asked if the forgiveness should apply to borrowers who attend private and public schools, he and other lawmakers said they wanted students from both types of institutions to be eligible.
Some Democrats fear that lending to students attending expensive private universities will make it easy for the Republicans to campaign this fall to control Congress.
However, remarks by several Democrats suggest that broad efforts to ease student debt could help the party with minority voters.
Cardenas said he told Biden that Spanish college debt students tend to face higher long-term debt burdens than white students. “We are trying to help all former students, but Latin American households and people trying to get back on their feet are affecting Spaniards at a higher level,” Cardenas said.
Representative Raul Ruiz, D-California, chairman of the group, said in a separate statement Wednesday that Spanish students “disproportionately bear the burden of student debt in our nation.” He said the group would continue to work with Biden, “to make sure our students have a place at the table when it comes to their financial health and well-being.”
Sumer sounded the same theme, saying blacks, Spaniards and other minority voters tended to carry more debt deeper into their lives. “It’s not just the right thing for our economy. That’s the decent thing to do, and it should end there. ”
The pandemic prompted then-President Donald Trump and Congress to begin providing student loan relief in March 2020.
After initially allowing borrowers to choose to suspend payments for at least 60 days, the moratorium was made automatically and was eventually extended several times by Trump and later Biden. Interest rates during the suspension were 0%.
Also at Monday’s White House meeting, Nanet Baragan, D-California, said she had told Biden that she should allow Trump-era restrictions that allowed authorities to quickly expel migrants crossing the Mexican border to expire as planned on May 23. Other participants in the meeting said Biden expressed opposition to the restrictions, but did not specify what he would do.
Many Democrats oppose these restrictions, which allow the government to cite fears of the spread of COVID-19 to reject asylum seekers. Republicans and a significant number of Democrats want the procedures to be left in place and leaving them out is seen as a political vulnerability for Democrats among moderate voters.
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AP reporters Kevin Frecking and Chris Megerian contributed.
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