An issue that many have been pressing US President Joe Biden on, especially since taking office in January 2021, is the issue of student loan forgiveness. This week, 210 advocacy groups have urged to get Biden to make a fourth extension of the pause on student debt payments.
In a letter addressed to Biden, the groups, led by the Student Borrower Protection Center, called on the US leader to pause student loan payments for a fourth time before the pause expires on May 1. Biden has paused student loan payments three times so far.
They cited inflation as the main reason, saying that borrowers were ill-equipped” to pay off their debt as prices continue to rise. They also explained that the pause during the pandemic was significant in which borrowers who chose to pay their loans during this time did not face high-interest rates.
“We, the undersigned 210 organizations, write to urge you to put a stop to this crisis in the making before it begins and extend the current pause on student loan payments,” said the letter. “It is clear that payments should not resume until your administration has fully delivered on the promises you made to student loan borrowers to fix the broken student loan system and cancel a substantial amount of federal student debt.”
Biden’s immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, first paused student loan payments when the pandemic began, waiving interest fees. Since that time, most of the 43 million borrowers were not required to make payments on their student debt, providing financial relief to those who suffered from COVID-19 and struggled with losing their jobs.
During his campaign, Biden pledged to reform the student loan system, pledging to approve up to $10,000 in student loan forgiveness for every federal borrower. It remains to be seen how Biden will act on the $1.7 trillion student debt crisis so far.
In other related news, Biden announced Tuesday that the US would ban all imports of Russian oil in a move to further punish Russia for its continued invasion of Ukraine. The US leader noted that the ban on Russian oil has strong bipartisan support in Congress, as both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for a ban on Russian oil.