Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), today introduced bicameral legislation to eliminate up to $50,000 in student loan debt for 42 million Americans-providing debt relief to 95% of student borrowers, including cancelling student debt entirely for 75% of borrowers. The Student Loan Debt Relief Act would end the student debt crisis, help millions of struggling families obtain financial stability, and would also take meaningful steps to begin to close the racial wealth gap.
Experts estimate this legislation’s ability to lessen the racial wealth gap for families with student loans would be “formidable”. For those families, not only would the Black-White and Black-Latinx wealth gap close “considerably,” but Black families with student loan debt would see their wealth grow by about $15,700 and Latinx families would see their wealth grow by over $27,000.
Outstanding student loans now total nearly $1.5 trillion in the U.S., more than triple the debt young people held thirty years ago. Almost 45 million Americans have student loan debt, and nearly 7.2 million are in default on those loans, as they face stagnant wages and rising costs of living. Black and Latinx Americans face the worst effects of the student debt crisis-with many Black borrowers still owing more than 100 percent of their loan balance 12 years after college, even with a degree in hand. The student debt crisis will only get worse unless Congress steps up to solve it.
“My very first bill when I got to the Senate was legislation to tackle the growing student debt crisis because I was sick of Washington allowing the wealthy to pay less, while burying tens of millions of Americans in mountains of student loan debt. Since then, Washington has only allowed this crisis to get worse-especially for people of color. Enough is enough.” said Senator Warren. “Congressman Clyburn and I have a bill to cancel student debt for millions of Americans and finally end this crisis.”
“Crushing student debt has reached crisis levels in America requiring big, bold solutions,” said House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn. “I’m proud to be working with Senator Warren to provide most student loan holders relief from this daunting burden and make amends for the failure to ensure that higher education is accessible and affordable to all. Post-secondary education should be the springboard to enable students to achieve their dreams not the impediment that prevents the realization of those goals.”
- Cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt for every person with household gross income at $100,000 or less.
- Provide automatic cancellation using data already available to the federal government about household gross income and outstanding student loan debt.
- Allow private student borrowers to receive loan cancellation by converting their private student loans to federal student loans through student loan refinancing.
- Not treat canceled debt as taxable income.
- Provide a year-longfreezeon loan payments made by borrowers, wage garnishment by the Department of Education on troubled loans, and interest accrual on student loans while the debt cancellation is being implemented.
- Automatically refinance remaining federal student loans to the interest rates specified in theBank on Student Emergency Loan Refinancing Act(S. 768/H.R. 1707).
- Allow borrowers to discharge their loans in bankruptcy, similar to theStudent Borrower Bankruptcy Relief Act of 2019(S. 1414/H.R. 2648).
- She prioritized student debt relief and fought to lower student loan interest rates, introducing the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act as her first bill in Congress;
- She conducted rigorous oversight of the for-profit college industry and helped secure three-quarters of a billion dollars in debt relief for students who were cheated by predatory for-profit colleges, including 4,500 Massachusetts students and more than 28,000 students across the country;
- She successfully advocated for stronger student loan protections for all students, including by passing a bipartisan law that prevented the Department of Education from eliminating competition among student loan servicers;
- She worked to examine and address disproportionate student debt burden among borrowers of color; and
- She successfully fought to create a $700 million student loan forgiveness fund for tens of thousands of Americans who work in public service but may be denied the public service loan forgiveness relief they were promised.
6 comments
So? Where did the money come from that these students borrowed?
Dumbocrats this is unreal so now taxpayers will absorb this financial burden these two idiots need to be locked up for this bullshit
Free, free, free, free. That’s the promise by socialists dems who logically can’t keep. Nothing is free after you run out of taxpayers money. Someone must pay. Think about the stupid promise about not having to work and all is free. You wouldn’t have anything at all because no one would make it or serve it. The only food you would have is the animals you slaughter yourself. Your vegetables need to be planted and where would you get the seeds or tractor to accomplish this. No clean water because no one works. They don’t have to it’s free. These far left socialists are not good for this country. Beware who you vote in next time.
Are the ones that paid like they agreed get a refund?
Borrow/pay. It’s that simple. We wouldn’t want to teach our precious snowflake butterflies responsibility now would we.
If you borrow, you pay it back. It takes years, but it’s worth it.
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