Rep. Ayanna Pressley Praises Biden-Harris Administration For Student Debt Relief For Struggling Borrowers

Strong advocates like Rep. Pressley are always needed!

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Ma.) celebrated the new proposed rules that will provide student debt relief to close to eight million borrowers facing hardships, calling them “powerful,” according to a press release shared with BLACK ENTERPRISE.

Pressley has been a vocal advocate of student debt relief alongside her colleague and fellow Massachusetts Democratic leader, Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The new rules came just weeks after Pressley sent a call to action for struggling borrowers to get the relief they needed.

“Government works best when it solves problems and alleviates hardships for the people it serves.” She said that this proposed rule to cancel the student debt for millions of additional borrowers is a powerful example of how the Biden-Harris Administration continues to do just that.

“This will have a lasting and life-changing impact for millions of borrowers who are struggling to balance student loan payments and medical bills, childcare cost expenses and more. The automatic cancellation provision is particularly notable and responsive to calls from borrowers and advocates alike.”

She thanked President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona for fighting student debt relief despite the many efforts of Republican legislators to kill corresponding legislation. “This is the type of leadership we need in this moment,” Pressley continued.

New regulations would prevent borrowers with continuous financial burdens from having to repay their loans. In addition to childcare costs, other identified financial burdens include medical bills, major expenses for caring for loved ones, and economic impacts from a natural disaster.

Pressley has been consistent in her push for relief. In April 2021, the congresswoman, Warren, and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey curated a plan for Biden to cancel student loan debt up to $50,000 for American borrowers. She followed up by testifying during a United States Senate Committee hearing on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to highlight the number of Americans struggling to repay their student loans going back decades.

“I’ve become all too familiar with the gentle tug of my sleeve or the panicked expression as I meet the eyes of someone drowning in student debt. The grandmother who was still paying off student loans. The young parent who can’t afford childcare or rent and her student loan payments. The teacher who fears losing his teaching license because he can’t come up with that monthly student loan payment, not even the minimum,” Pressley said before Congress.

“The student debt crisis is not naturally occurring. This crisis was crafted in these hallowed halls. Policy decisions were made that ensnared generations in the student debt trap.”

In mid-October 2024, Biden’s team announced an additional $4.5 billion in student debt relief for over 60,000 borrowers who applied for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which has had its share of issues in the past. Before Biden took office, only 7,000 borrowers received forgiveness through the program.

Over the years, the rejection rate was as high as 98% due to “administrative errors and difficult processes.”

Pressley has continued the pledge on the campaign trail with Harris. She has highlighted the dangers of Project 2025, which attacks the Department of Education and “Black jobs” at the federal level, like hers, according to The Bay State Banner. “He’s coming for actual Black jobs,” she said.

“There are three million federal jobs, and one out of every five of them is held by Black folks — so we’re talking about 600,000 Black Americans that stand to have their livelihoods impacted because Project 2025 calls for using executive action from Schedule F for massive firing of dedicated public servants to replace them with Trump loyalists and sycophants.”