Democrats Press Student Debt Cancelation – Inside Higher Ed
House Democrats are calling for at least $10,000 of each borrower’s student debt to be canceled as part of the stimulus plan being negotiated in Congress.
As negotiations over a mammoth economic stimulus package continued in the Senate Monday night, House Democrats unveiled their own $2.5 trillion proposal, which largely mirrors, and in some ways goes beyond, the plan pushed by Senate Democrats to cancel large amounts of the nation’s student debt.
The House plan also proposes giving more aid to colleges and universities than the Senate Republican plan would, but the American Council on Education worried the money will be distributed too slowly to save institutions in immediate need of help from layoffs or even closure.
The proposal largely mirrored the approach of Senate Democrats in using federal dollars to make the monthly federal student loan payments of Federal Family Education Loan, Perkins and direct loan borrowers for as long as a national emergency declaration over the coronavirus epidemic continues. After the declaration is lifted, borrowers would get a 90-day transition period in which they’d receive at least three notices indicating when they’d have to resume making payments. Missed payments would not result in fees or penalties during that time.