President Joe Biden before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on February 16, 2021.
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A multi-state attorney general group sent a letter to Congress on Friday urging the passing of two resolutions calling on President Biden to forgive $ 50,000 in federal student loans.
The letter is signed by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. It supports Senate Resolution 46 and House Resolution 100, both of which ask Biden to use executive action to cancel up to $ 50,000 in educational debt per borrower.
“The burden of insurmountable student loan debt has paralyzed families’ finances across the country and widened the racial wealth gap,” Attorney General Maura Healey, who led the coalition, said in a statement.
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Support for canceling a larger amount of debt per borrower comes just days after Biden said he wouldn’t forgive up to $ 50,000 in student loans, but said he is still considering writing off $ 10,000. Still, debt-forgiveness advocates, including Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., And borrowers themselves have continued to pressure Biden to erase a larger amount.
Certainly, many argue that canceling student loan debt is unfair to those who have paid off their loans, and that canceling a lower amount is a more targeted approach.
The letter states that many borrowers struggling with student loan debt are victims of for-profit colleges, have been hit hard by the pandemic, and have few options for relief when the burden of their debt is out of control. Student loan debt generally cannot be paid off in bankruptcy, and very few people have been able to get relief through current programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness.