- AOC wrote on Instagram that student-loan borrowers should "keep bullying the White House" for relief.
- This is the latest call urging borrowers to keep pressure on Biden to cancel student debt.
- Student-loan payments are set to resume on May 1, and Biden has not yet detailed further plans.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to ensure Americans aren't letting the White House off the hook when it comes to student-loan forgiveness.
"FYI, it does not take an act of Congress to cancel student debt," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Instagram on Thursday. "Biden could do it tomorrow if he wanted to. Keep bullying the White House. It has been successful in delaying payments but now we gotta finish the job."
In December, President Joe Biden extended the pause on student-loan payments, with waived interest, for his third time. Payments are now set to resume May 1. And while he cited uncertainty with the Omicron variant as the reason for an additional extension, lawmakers like Ocasio-Cortez said it was the consistent pressure from advocates on the president that led to additional relief for 43 million federal borrowers.
Now, with the expected payment resumption date quickly approaching, some advocates and Democratic lawmakers are ramping up the pressure on Biden to not only extend the pause on loan payments a fourth time, but to cancel a large share of the $1.7 trillion student debt crisis.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer seemed to agree with Ocasio-Cortez on the importance of putting pressure on the White House. In a conversation with Voto Latino this week, an organization that works to empower Latino voters, Schumer said, "We're trying to get 15 million emails, letters, calls to the White House to ask President Biden to use his pen and cancel student loans. And if you can do that, it will help."
"If he hears from so many people, and particularly so many young people and so many young women, people of color, who are his base, it'll help. I think he wants to do it, we just need to push him," Schumer added.
As of now, Biden has not detailed plans for further student-loan relief, whether in the form of another payment pause extension or broad forgiveness. But White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain recently said more relief might be on the way before May.
"The President is going to look at what we should do on student debt before the pause expires, or he'll extend the pause," Klain said, adding that "the question whether or not there's some executive action on student debt forgiveness when payments resume is a decision we're going to take before payments resume."
Republican lawmakers have criticized the idea of further relief, saying broad loan forgiveness would cost taxpayers and the economy — but progressives have maintained their stance that borrowers need further relief. On Thursday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) released a list of eight policy areas it wants Biden to tackle by executive action, and canceling federal student debt was one of them.
"45 million Americans are stuck in the student debt trap, preventing them from buying homes, starting families, and investing in their communities," the agenda said. "This crisis disproportionately affects Black and Brown borrowers, who are seeing student debt drag down their finances even past retirement age. The CPC is calling on the Biden administration to put money in millions of people's pockets by using existing authorities to cancel federal student loan debt."