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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 write off student debt after taking office.
A Biden official told Fox News that the president-elect is calling for “immediate” action to write off $ 10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers – but that action should take place in Congress.
“Immediate cancellation of $ 10,000 student loans, helping struggling folks up 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.) Have put forward a plan indicating that 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 the legislation,” Schumer said in an interview with The Ink.
Biden called 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 Department of Education to reduce or write off student loan debt without Congressional approval.
He said it would offer full forgiveness to over 75% of borrowers and partial forgiveness to over 95%.
But for taxpayers to absorb the cost of massive student debt could face political resistance and lawsuits.
Outstanding student loans have doubled in 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 Americans have after mortgages.
In March, President Trump suspended federal student loan payments and set interest rates at zero percent until December 31, 2020.
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