President-elect Joe Biden said Congress should take “immediate” action to write off student loan debts.
Biden’s call comes after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Biden should take executive action to waive student debt after taking office.
A Biden official told Fox News that the president-elect calls for “immediate” action to cancel $ 10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers – but that action should take place in Congress.
“An immediate $ 10,000 student loan forgiveness, helping struggling people over there,” Biden said Monday. “They have to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent. Those kinds of decisions.
Biden added: “It should be done immediately.”
The official later said Biden was referring to congressional action.
Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Put forward a plan whereby Biden could use his executive power to write off up to $ 50,000 in student debt per borrower.
“I have a proposal with Elizabeth Warren that the first $ 50,000 of debt be defeated, and we believe Joe Biden can do it with the pen rather than with the legislation,” Schumer said at a conference. hurry. a meeting with ink.
Biden has asked for a more modest remission – $ 10,000 in student loan debt – as part of a larger coronavirus relief program.
Schumer said Biden had the power under the Higher Education Act to order the Education Department to reduce or write off student loan debt without Congressional approval.
He said it would offer a full discount to over 75% of borrowers and a partial discount to over 95%.
But for taxpayers to absorb the cost of massive student debt could meet political resistance and lawsuits.
Student debt outstanding has doubled over the past decade to $ 1.7 trillion, with one in six Americans owing money, Fox News reported. It is the second largest amount of debt owed by Americans after home mortgages.
In March, President Trump suspended federal student loan payments and set interest rates at zero percent until December 31, 2020.
