“Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of Americans have struggled to keep a roof over their heads, pay bills and put food on the table,” the heads of the Senate and House Education Committees, Senator Patty Murray of Washington and Representative Bobby Scott of Virginia, wrote in a June letter. “While the economy has begun to show promising signs of recovery, more than nine million Americans remain out of work, and the economic and health disparities created by the pandemic are severe.”
They also wrote that the pause had helped borrowers “cover essential expenses during the pandemic and during ongoing recovery efforts.”
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated that the pause had saved borrowers $7 billion per month in payments during the pandemic, according to the letter from Ms. Murray and Mr. Scott, and the Education Department estimated that borrowers saved about $5 billion per month on loan interest.
Notably, the Education Department emphasized that January 2022 was a “definitive end date,” as the Biden administration faces mounting pressure from Democrats to erase up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt.
In a joint statement, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — all Democrats who have urged President Biden to cancel student loan debt by executive order — said the pause “provided an enormous relief to millions of borrowers facing a disastrous financial cliff” but didn’t go far enough.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/us/politics/biden-student-loan-repayment-extension.html
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