White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Joe Biden using executive action to forgive some federal student loan debt is "still on the table”, noting that he could make the decision sometime in the coming months.
According to The Hill, she made the comments during an appearance on Pod Save America after she was questioned about past comments the president made about forgiving some student loan debt.
“Yes, still on the table, still on the table,” she said, which prompted cheers from the live audience listening to the podcast.
She then said the administration was still considering whether to continue the student loan debt payment freeze that was recently extended to 31 August. The freeze was put in place to account for the economic hit the nation took as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Nobody’s had to pay a dollar, a cent, anything in student loans since Joe Biden has been president,” she said. “And if that can help people ease the burden of costs in other parts of their lives, that’s an important thing to consider. That’s a big part of the consideration.”
She said that the moratorium would either be extended or the administration would make a decision about using executive powers to forgive some debt.
That decision would likely come in September, a month before the midterm elections.
During his campaign, Mr Biden said he wanted to enact at least $10,000 per borrower of student loan debt. Progressive Democrats have pushed him to go further and offer up to $50,000 per borrower or even to wipe out the debts completely.
Mr Biden has called on lawmakers to cancel the debt through legislation rather than relying on him to use his executive powers to do so. However, Republicans are opposed to the debt forgiveness, leaving some Democrats sceptical they could muster the 60 Senate votes necessary to pass the legislation through Congress.
Ms Psaki said the president prefers to cancel the debt through legislation because "bills are more permanent" than executive orders, which can be reversed by another president.
“The courts and, God forbid, there’s a Republican in the White House one day, I mean, they can overturn these things,” she said. “This is the thing with executive actions – you can go back and forth and overturn them, and obviously we want something in any of these cases where it’s more permanent.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who supports debt forgiveness of $50,000 per borrower, said Wednesday that work on a debt forgiveness bill is still in the works.
“I have talked personally to the president on this issue a whole bunch of times. I have told him that this is more important than just about anything else that he can do on his own,” he said. “We’re making progress folks. We are making progress. The White House seems more open to it than ever before.”
