White House press secretary Jen Psaki signaled that President Biden is still considering his options on canceling student loan debt in a Monday press briefing.
The questions came after Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, said Biden had been researching his "legal authority" to use executive action on canceling up to $50,000 of student loan debt per person.
Psaki stated that Biden was more than willing to cancel $10,000 in student debt through legislation in Congress but skirted the idea of using executive action to cancel a higher sum.
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"I think that would naturally be the first step before it's a larger amount beyond there," Psaki said. "What Ron Klain was referring to is the fact that there's an ongoing review.”
"It's both a policy review and a legal review — so Department of Education and Department of Justice — to look at what the options are, and what authority could be recommended to the president. So that was the process he's referring to," she said.
Biden has begun to take steps toward addressing the $1.7 trillion student debt crisis in the United States.
The Department of Education has recently canceled student debt for about 72,000 defrauded borrowers, as well as for more than 41,000 borrowers who have disabilities.
Yet, 44 million Americans have student loan debt, and it has only been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
While the coronavirus relief package, known as the CARES Act, set interest rates to 0 percent and paused a majority of federal student loan payments, which has now been extended to Sept. 30, 2021, the financial burden caused by the pandemic has led new student loan debt to grow double in size.
According to Experian, student loan debt levels grew about 6 percent per year from 2015-2019, but in 2020, it increased by 12 percent.
When a reporter restated to Psaki that Biden had said in the past he would not cancel $50,000 in student loans per person, Psaki responded, “We haven't ruled out options, but that review is ongoing and there isn't a conclusion on it."
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Gs1000g on April 6th, 2021 at 18:24 UTC »
If they cancel any student loan debt they also need to look at how easy it is for a 18 year old to take out massive amounts of student loans. The colleges running these schemes don’t care because they are still getting paid. The whole system needs reform.
barryp12 on April 6th, 2021 at 16:34 UTC »
It just goes to show how broken our education system has become. Where are the affordable colleges of the 1950's and 60's? Where are the corporate apprenticeships in robotics repair, building trades, electronics technician, etc.?
vtlogypj on April 6th, 2021 at 16:05 UTC »
This is like the 20th article about him considering doing something about student loans. Wake me up when something happens.