President Joe Biden will extend the moratorium on federal student loan payments through Aug. 31.
After the moratorium is officially announced, it will be the fifth extension since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. Biden had previously moved the payment restart date on three separate occasions but was urged not to.
Last week, several Democrats shared they were hoping Biden would take further action.
“I’m hopeful that the president is going to take action,” Sen. Cory Booker told The Hill. “It is something that is extraordinarily popular, not just with people with student loans, but families of people going to college.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren are calling on Biden to use his executive authority to cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower. In a letter sent on March 31, dozens of Democratic legislators sent a letter to the president pressing him to extend the moratorium through year’s end and “to provide meaningful student debt cancellation.”
A recent poll found that nearly 66% of likely voters are in support of the president forgiving student debt—with 70% of Latino and Black voters in favor. Biden is expected to make the announcement on Wednesday.
Not everyone is happy about the extension.
Sen. Tom Cotton called the student loan payment freeze is “an insult” to Americans who pay their debts.
“President Biden’s perpetual student loan payment moratorium is an insult to every American who responsibly paid debts,” Cotton tweeted. “There’s no free lunch: this reckless move puts taxpayers on the hook for billions.”
