US President Joe Biden extends student loan debt repayment holiday

Biden narrowed his campaign promise in recent months by embracing the income limit as soaring inflation took a political toll and as he aimed to head off political attacks that the cancellation would benefit those with higher take-home pay. But Democrats, from members of congressional leadership to those facing tough re-election bids this November, have pushed the administration to go as broad as possible on debt relief, seeing it in part as a galvanizing issue, particularly for Black and young voters this fall.

The frenzied last-minute lobbying continued Tuesday even as Biden remained on his summer vacation. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., one of the loudest advocates in recent years for canceling student loan debt, spoke privately on the phone with Biden, imploring the president to forgive as much debt as the administration can, according to a Democrat with knowledge of the call.

In his pitch, Schumer argued to Biden that doing so was the right thing to do morally and economically, said the Democrat, who asked for anonymity to describe a private conversation.

Inside the administration, officials have discussed since at least early summer forgiving more than $10,000 of student debt for certain categories of borrowers, such as Pell Grant recipients, according to three people with knowledge of the deliberations. That remained one of the final variables being considered by Biden heading into Wednesday's announcement.

Democrats are betting that Biden, who has seen his public approval rating tumble over the last year, can help motivate younger voters to the polls in November with the announcement.

Although Biden's plan is narrower than what he initially proposed during the campaign, "he'll get a lot of credit for following through on something that he was committed to," said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who worked with Biden during the 2020 election.

She described student debt as a "gateway issue" for younger voters, meaning it affects their views and decisions on housing affordability and career choices. A survey of 18- to 29-year-olds conducted by the Harvard Institute of Politics in March found that 59% of those polled favored debt cancellation of some sort - whether for all borrowers or those most in need - although student loans did not rank high among issues that most concerned people in that age group.

Some advocates were already bracing for disappointment.

"If the rumours are true, we've got a problem," Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP, which has aggressively lobbied Biden to take bolder action, said Tuesday. He emphasized that Black students face higher debut burdens than white students.

"President Biden's decision on student debt cannot become the latest example of a policy that has left Black people - especially Black women - behind," he said. "This is not how you treat Black voters who turned out in record numbers and provided 90% of their vote to once again save democracy in 2020."

John Della Volpe, who worked as a consultant on Biden's campaign and is the director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, said the particulars of Biden's announcement were less important than the decision itself.

"It's about trust in politics, in government, in our system. It's also about trust in the individual, which in this case is President Biden."

Combined with fears about expanding abortion restrictions and Trump's reemergence on the political scene, Della Volpe said student debt forgiveness "adds an additional tailwind to an already improving position with young people."

Former US President Donald Trump. [AP photo]

Republicans, meanwhile, see only political upside if Biden pursues a large-scale cancellation of student debt ahead of the November midterms, anticipating backlash for Democrats - particularly in states where there are large numbers of working-class voters without college degrees. Critics of broad student debt forgiveness also believe it will open the White House to lawsuits, on the grounds that Congress has never given the president the explicit authority to cancel debt on his own.

The Republican National Committee on Tuesday blasted Biden's expected announcement as a "handout to the rich," claiming it would unfairly burden lower-income taxpayers and those who have already paid off their student loans with covering the costs of higher education for the wealthy.

"My neighbour, a detective, worked 3 jobs (including selling carpet) & his wife worked to make sure their daughter got quality college degree w/no student debt," Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, tweeted Tuesday. "Big sacrifice. Now their taxes must pay off someone else's student debt?"

Biden's elongated deliberations have sent federal loan servicers, who have been instructed to hold back billing statements while he weighed a decision, grumbling.

Industry groups had complained that the delayed decision left them with just days to notify borrowers, retrain customer service workers and update websites and digital payment systems, said Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance.

It increases the risk that some borrowers will inadvertently be told they need to make payments, he said.

"At this late stage I think that's the risk we're running," he said. "You can't just turn on a dime with 35 million borrowers who all have different loan types and statuses."