Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Dec. 7, that President-elect Joe Biden is considering cancelling $50,000 in student loan debt for low income and middle class students.
In a press conference, Schumer stood alongside Congressman-elect Richie Torres and Representative-elect Jamaal Bowman to announce they have “come to the conclusion” that the president-elect can “forgive $50,000 of debt the day he becomes president.”
Schumer is also pressuring Biden to appoint a Secretary of Education that supports student loan forgiveness. According to Schumer, it will ultimately be up to the secretary officially, but if student loan forgiveness is important to Biden, it will be important to them.
“This debt is a huge burden on the backs of our students standing in the way of them and their economy and it stays with them for a very long time,” Schumer told reporters.
The group is calling for Biden to use an executive order to cancel $50,000 in student loan debt for federal student loan borrowers with an income below 125,000 and do it in a way that doesn’t leave borrowers with a tax liability.
“We
have come to the conclusion that President Biden can undo this debt, can forgive $50,000 of debt the first day he becomes president,” Schumer said outside his office in Midtown Manhattan. “You don’t need Congress; All you need is the flick of a pen.”“Using an executive order to forgive federal student loans will likely be met with a lawsuit and preliminary injunction, and eventually fail,” higher-education expert Mark Kantrowitz told CNBC. “Also, trying that route immediately upon taking office would block any attempt at working with Congress in a bipartisan manner.”