It’s been more than two years since student debtors have had to fork over a single cent to the government. The student loan pause is supposed to end in a week and a half, on August 31. Is anyone else getting kind of worried that President Biden has yet to say a word about whether people will actually be expected to start paying again come September (much less if any of their student-loan debt will be canceled)?
Back in June, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told lawmakers that student-loan borrowers in repayment would receive “ample notice” as to whether the pause would be extended once again. Last week, he told CBS News that borrowers would find out “soon.” Time, of course, is running out quickly, because there are just 10 days until payments are supposed to resume. This is hardly “ample notice.”
On Sunday, during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, Cardona had some additional words to say about whether loan payments would be expected next month. “We know August 31 is a date many people are waiting to hear something from,” he said. “We’ve been talking daily about this and I can tell you the American people will hear within the next week or so what the Department of Education will be doing around that.”
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When asked if he could confirm that relief for borrowers would be coming, he said he “[didn’t] have any news to announce,” but that “American people will hear directly from us because we recognize that this is an important issue across the country.”
“When are they going to give us a straight answer on this?” one source inquired. “I’d really love to know how strapped for cash I’m going to be. They need to get their act together. This is so unprofessional,” said another.
Biden is reportedly considering canceling up to $10,000 of student loans for borrowers making under $150,000 (sorry, Biglaw associates). This is a literal drop in the bucket for law school graduates with six figures of debt, but even something so inconsequential for lawyer debtors is better than nothing.
So here we are, still waiting, still wondering if we’ll be back to the endless debt repayment grind at the end of the summer. Hopefully “soon” will actually be soon because lawyers are getting really antsy.
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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.