Americans dealing with student loan debt got some welcome information Wednesday as the White House announced another extension of the federal student loan moratorium.
The latest moratorium was set to expire on May 1, but the new extension will go through the summer until August 31. The “pause” on student loan payments began back in March of 2020 at the beginning of the COVID pandemic and has been continually extended ever since. It is expected to affect over 40 million Americans.
The timing of the latest extension also sets up a potential debate over yet another extension just before Americans head to the ballot box in the fall for the 2022 midterm elections.
The extension has also been teased for weeks by President Joe Biden, who previously told federal student loan servicers not to mail out announcements that payments would be restarting. The extension however is not nearly as long as many Democrat lawmakers had hoped it would be.
A contingent of close to 100 elected Democrats led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren addressed a letter to Biden last week requesting that the moratorium be extended through the end of 2022.
Still other more progressive Democrats want Biden to eliminate student debt altogether through an executive order, a request that has yet to gain significant traction.
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