{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-unethical-for-white-house-staff-to-forgive-their-own-student-debt", "Cotton: Unethical for White House Staff to \u201cForgive\u201d their Own Student Debt", "2022-06-06", "2022", "2022-06", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: James Arnold or Mary Collins Atkinson (202) 224-2353\n\nJune 6, 2022\n\nCotton: Unethical for White House Staff to \u201cForgive\u201d their Own Student Debt\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today called on President Joe Biden to require aides with federal student loan debt to be recused from any discussions about a student loan debt transfer plan.\n\nIn part, Cotton wrote, \u201cPresident Biden promised to \u2018Restore Ethics in Government,\u2019 to prevent \u2018self-enrichment,\u2019 and to \u2018[ensure] that everyone in a position of public trust eliminates even the appearance that their financial holdings could influence decision-making.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine a more blatant example of \u2018self-enrichment\u2019 than White House aides with federal student loan debt working to transfer their debts to taxpayers who never attended college,\u201d Cotton continued.\n\nText of the letter may be found here and below.\n\nTo: WH EOP, Office of Government Ethics, Department of Education\n\nCc: House Ethics Committee, Senate Ethics Committee, OMB\n\nDespite claiming that we are in a strong economy, President Biden has repeatedly delayed repayment of federal student loans. Public reports state that the President is also planning to \u201cforgive\u201d at least $10,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower by transferring these debts to taxpayers. The failure to require repayment has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and transferring the debt would cost billions more.\n\nBloomberg reported that dozens of White House aides have substantial federal student loan debt[1]. This is a clear conflict of interest, as these aides stand to profit by transferring their debts to taxpayers.\n\nPresident Biden promised to \u201cRestore Ethics in Government,\u201d to prevent \u201cself-enrichment,\u201d and to \u201c[ensure] that everyone in a position of public trust eliminates even the appearance that their financial holdings could influence decision-making[2].\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s hard to imagine a more blatant example of \u201cself-enrichment\u201d than White House aides with federal student loan debt working to transfer their debts to taxpayers who never attended college.\n\nDoes the White House require aides with federal student loan debt to be recused from working on a student loan debt transfer plan? If not, why not?", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:13:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-unethical-for-white-house-staff-to-forgive-their-own-student-debt"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7455619052052498, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}