• Biden is planning to announce an extension of the student-loan payment pause through August 31, three outlets report.
  • This is his fourth extension, and it comes just days before payments were set to resume May 1.
  • Democrats are continuing to call for broad student debt cancellation.

Millions of federal student-loan borrowers are on track for some good news this week.

Multiple publications confirmed on Tuesday that President Joe Biden will announce an additional extension of the pause on student-loan payments through August 31 this week, just days before it was set to expire on May 1, according to sources familiar who spoke to Politico, the Associate Press, and Bloomberg. Over the past few months, Biden has been under increasing pressure to extend the pause on payments, given rising inflation and the continuing pandemic, and the upcoming announcement will mark his fourth extension of pandemic relief for borrowers.

"YES! This is an important step to ensure that working families' expenses aren't going up as we work to fight inflation and corporate greed," Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal wrote on Twitter following news of the announcement. "Now, let's cancel at least $50,000 per borrower."

This announcement follows comments from White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain last month, who told Pod Save America that Biden will either extend the pause on student-loan payments or decide what relief he can implement via executive action.

Notably, the extension through the end of August falls short of relief nearly 100 Democratic lawmakers recently called for, in which they urged Biden to extend the pause through at least 2023 and cancel student debt in the meantime.

"Although there may be different ideas about the best way to structure cancellation, we all agree that you should cancel student debt now," they wrote, adding that "given the fast-approaching deadline for borrowers to resume payments, your administration must act as quickly as possible to extend the pause and make clear to the American public your intention to cancel a meaningful amount of student debt."

It remains to be seen whether broad student-loan forgiveness is on the agenda. But recent polling has shown that debt forgiveness will lure voters to the polls for midterm elections, likely helping Democrats maintain the majority that is currently at risk. 

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