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President’s Education Secretary Joe Biden is reportedly investigating the administration’s legal power to write off part of the $ 1.7 trillion in student loans, but the White House has said the president is still not backing it. debt relief over $ 10,000 for all borrowers.
“The president is not promoting $ 50,000 in unlimited student loan relief,” a White House spokesperson told Fox News on Thursday.
Any debt relief over $ 10,000 should be targeted, “based on the borrower’s income, based on the type of debt in question,” the White House said.
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White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told Politico on Thursday that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona was preparing a report for the president on his legal authority to cancel student debt.
“He asked his secretary of education, who has just been working for a few weeks, once he took office, to ask his department to prepare a note on the legal authority of the president, and I hope we see that in the next few weeks, “Klain told Politico. “And then he’ll look at that legal authority, he’ll look at the policy issues around it, and he’ll make a decision.”
The president has campaigned to write off up to $ 10,000 in student debt per borrower, but the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is asking him to write off up to $ 50,000.
“We are all here to call on President Biden to do the right thing by the movement that elected him and use his executive power to write off $ 50,000 in federal student loan debt,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley. , D-Mass., On TV news. conference Thursday.
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Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Argues that the Education Secretary has the legal authority to write off student loan debt under a section of the Higher Education Act 1965 that states that the secretary may modify, “… compromise, waive or release any right, title, claim, lien or demand, in whatever form, including any capital or any right of redemption.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that Biden was keen to work with Congress on the issue.
“The president continues to call on Congress to write off $ 10,000 in debt for student borrowers,” she said at a briefing. “This is something that Congress could take action on and he would be happy to sign on. We are always taking a closer look at our options on student loans.”
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In January, Biden extended the suspension of federal student loan payments and set interest rates at 0% at least until September.
The Education Department also announced this week that the hiatus on federal student loan payments will be extended to more than one million private borrowers who have defaulted on their loans.
Student loan debt soared to more than $ 1.7 trillion nationwide by the end of 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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