Student Loan Forgiveness and Another Round Of Stimulus Checks – Here’s What You Need to Know About the HEROES Act – Forbes
Rahm Emanuel, former mayor of Chicago and the White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama, has famously stated, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.” He has described a “serious crisis” as an “an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” It seems that Speak of the House Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat majority in the House have heeded Emanuel’s advice by passing the $3 trillion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act on Friday. If passed by the Senate, the HEROES Act can significantly appease the burden of student loans until September 2021 as well as provide financial relief in the form of another round of stimulus checks.
The Senate and the Executive branch have been vocal about their opposition to the HEROES Act. According to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he believes the Act is “not designed to deal with reality, but designed to deal with aspirations.” Similarly, a statement of administration policy issued by the executive office of the president stated that if the HEROES Act was presented to the president, “his advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.”
However, in the event that the HEROES Act does pass in the Senate, it would offer $10,000 in student loan forgiveness to federal, Perkins, and commercially-held FFEl-program loan holders. Only those who are considered “economically distressed borrowers” would qualify for the $10,000 forgiveness, mandating that borrowers currently: