Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) has introduced legislation to cancel private student loan debt in response to the Coronavirus pandemic and economic recession.
Introduced as an amendment to the latest reauthorization of the National Defense Authorization Act, Dean’s proposal would provide for $10,000 in private student loan forgiveness for every borrower.
“We can’t ignore private student loan borrowers that are suffering,” Dean said in a Tweet. “My amendment currently being debated on the floor would provide up to $10,000 in immediate relief to the roughly 4.5 million private student loanborrowers. This amendment is good for borrowers and our economy.” Private student loan borrowers were left out of the CARES Act’s student loan relief provisions.
Republicans blasted Dean’s proposal. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) accused Democrats of trying to “socialize all student debt.”
Rep. Dean’s amendment is just the latest Democratic proposal to cancel student loan debt in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) recently called for $30,000 in across-the-board student debt cancellation to address the economic crisis and longtime racial injustices. “The average borrower has $30,000 worth of [student loan] debt — [cancelling that] will jump-start the economy,” she recently told Yahoo Finance. “Black student borrowers borrow, and default more than anyone else because of our inability to build generational wealth. I see that as a racial justice issue.”
Recently, over 100 civil rights and consumer advocacy organization called on Congress to cancel student loan debt on a broad scale. House and Senate Democrats have proposed $10,000 in across-the-board student loan forgiveness. And former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, recently reaffirmed his support for widespread student loan forgiveness, as well.
This legislation has passed the House as of July 21, 2020.
This article originally appeared on Forbes.
