{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/new-op-ed-why-we-elizabeth-warren-and-chuck-schumer-believe-the-biden-harris-administration-should-cancel-up-to-50k-in-student-debt-on-day-one", "New Op-Ed: Why We, Elizabeth Warren And Chuck Schumer, Believe The Biden-Harris Administration Should Cancel Up To $50K In Student Debt On Day One", "2020-12-04", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 04, 2020\n\t\t\t New Op-Ed: Why We, Elizabeth Warren And Chuck Schumer, Believe The Biden-Harris Administration Should Cancel Up To $50K In Student Debt On Day One \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tOp-Ed\r\nin Blavity Washington, DC - Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and\r\nSenate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today published an op-ed in\r\nBlavity on why the Biden-Harris administration should cancel up to $50,000 in\r\nstudent loan debt on day one of their administration and how cancelling student\r\nloan debt will help start to close the racial wealth gap. Read the full\r\nop-ed here. Key sections below. Why We, Elizabeth Warren And Chuck Schumer, Believe The Biden-Harris\r\nAdministration Should Cancel Up To $50K In Student Debt On Day One For the first time in history, the American people have elected a President\r\nand Vice President States who committed to cancelling billions in student loan\r\ndebt. Americans outside of Washington get\r\nit. They see their friends, family, and neighbors crushed\r\nby growing debt burdens, unable to afford their first home or start a small\r\nbusiness. They know a senior whose Social Security check has been garnished by\r\nthe federal government just to pay student loan interest. They know a mother\r\nstruggling to make ends meet who never got a degree and now watches her debt\r\nload grow faster than she can keep up with. ... Broad cancellation of student debt would give tens of millions of Americans\r\n$200 to $300 more to spend and save each month. Cancellation also means they\r\nwon't have to worry about a student debt time bomb exploding when the payments\r\nsuspension ends. With more money in their pockets and a smaller debt load, they\r\ncan consider bigger purchases like cars and homes and, for some, start their\r\nown businesses. That's good for the borrower and good for our economy. ... On day one, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can\r\nuse existing authority under the law to cancel up to $50,000 in federal\r\nstudent loan debt for all borrowers with federal loans and make sure it doesn't\r\nresult in any tax bill for borrowers. This is the single most effective executive action available to provide\r\nmassive stimulus to our economy. ... We have supported limiting debt cancellation for those whose education is\r\npaying off big-time - for example, those with big six-figure incomes. But for\r\ntens of millions more, student loan debt has become an impossible burden, and\r\nwe must act. Among those struggling the hardest are people who tried college, but who never\r\nmade it to a diploma whether because they didn't have the support, the\r\nchildcare, the time, life intervened, whatever. Up\r\nto 40% of student loan borrowers are in a nearly-impossible situation - no\r\ndiploma to boost their earnings and a debt load they simply cannot manage. Student loan debt falls\r\nparticularly hard on Black and Latinx students. These students are more\r\nlikely to borrow money to go to college, borrow more money while they are in\r\ncollege and have a harder time paying when they leave college. The results are\r\ndevastating. A third of Latinx borrowers default on their loans, and Black\r\nborrowers have about a 50-50\r\nchance of defaulting on their loans. In fact, a decade after they start\r\nschool, the typical Black borrower owes more on their loan than they originally\r\nborrowed. Millions of these students were cheated into debt by sham for-profit\r\ncolleges. And even after cancelling up to $50,000 of student debt, the price of\r\ncollege is still astronomical. That's why the incoming administration should\r\nalso work with Congress and higher education institutions to reign in the\r\nout-of-control college costs and crack down on predatory practices. That will\r\nhelp reduce the student debt crisis moving forward. Black and brown students across the country go to college because they\r\nbelieve it is the surest path to build a future for themselves and their families.\r\nThey did everything right. But for millions of Black and brown communities,\r\nstudent debt is now just another gigantic\r\nroadblock between them building real wealth. With the stroke\r\nof a pen on day one, the Biden-Harris administration can right this wrong.\r\nThey can close\r\nthe Black-white wealth gap by 25 percentage points, and close the Latinx-white\r\nwealth gap by 27 percentage points, giving Black and brown families across\r\nthe country a far better shot at building financial security. They can send\r\nthose monthly payments back into our local communities and our economy, increasing\r\nGDP by tens of billions of dollars. They can free up cash and credit to buy\r\nhomes or start new businesses and create more jobs. They can bring us a step\r\ncloser to fixing a deeply broken higher education system. After the 2008 financial crisis, young people were shoved into a weak job\r\nmarket and plunged even deeper into student debt. They have never\r\nrecovered financially. They now face the second major economic crisis of\r\ntheir young lives. And many of those borrowers, especially Black and brown\r\nborrowers, are still\r\ndrowning. We can do better this time - we must do better. ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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": ["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/new-op-ed-why-we-elizabeth-warren-and-chuck-schumer-believe-the-biden-harris-administration-should-cancel-up-to-50k-in-student-debt-on-day-one"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.007251838222146, "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"}