House Republicans demand an ethics investigation into the student loan forgiveness plan proposed by the White House. The plan has been deemed as an illegal, unjust wealth transfer by top House Republicans who demanded the investigation.
Republicans demand an ethics investigation into the student loan forgiveness plan
Will the student loan be canceled? No decision has been made yet. The Washington Post claims that Biden will cancel $10,000 of student loans per student loan borrower; and student loan forgiveness will be available to individual student loan borrowers who earn up to $150,000 in annual income or married couples who file jointly and earn up to $300,000. After introducing the proposal on Wednesday, the top Republican on the House education committee, Virginia Foxx, and the top Republican on the House oversight committee, James Comer, sent a letter to Emory Rounds III, the director of the US Office of Government Ethics, regarding potential student-loan forgiveness.
Foxx and Comer say that few White House staffers stand for his plan. A recent report by The Republicans found that one in five White House staffers filled out a financial disclosure form with student loans that are still being paid off. At least 30 White House staffers have loan balances, which could be as much as $4.7 million.
“This policy is an unjust wealth transfer from hardworking Americans to highly educated upper-middle-class graduates who borrowed from taxpayers to earn their degree, and, in some cases, multiple degrees,” the lawmakers wrote. “Public officials should never use their office to enrich themselves unjustly, and such behavior would directly violate the Ethics Pledge that President Biden implemented for all political appointees,” they further stated.
Republicans demand an enquiry
Foxx and Comer have requested that the following information from the ethics office by June 29; A list of all Biden staffers who worked on the student loan forgiveness plan, documentation on whether those staffers have student loans that would be forgiven under the plan, and copies of ethics waivers signed by those staffers.
Senator Tom Cotton posted last month on Twitter saying, “Every White House employee with student loans should be banned from working on Biden’s scheme to transfer student loan debt to the taxpayers.”
Every White House employee with student loans should be banned from working on Biden’s scheme to transfer student loan debt to the taxpayers.
It’s a clear conflict of interest.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) May 24, 2022
With the rising inflation all over the country, it has become a bit tougher for students to pursue higher education, so they head towards seeking loans where Democrats are pushing the proposal of the loan forgiveness not only to ease their burden but also to fill the racial wealth gap.
But Biden hasn’t declared the proposal publicly. The decision has yet to be made. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pushing Biden to go for more than $10,000 for those who need it. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, “We can’t just pick an arbitrary number despite so many people wanting to do so; there’s an actual level where wealth inequity starts to get reduced.”
Also Read: Rough Waters Ahead for President Biden
The recent announcements by President Biden
The Department of Education has recently announced that the proposal would cancel $5.8 billion in total loan discharges for 560,000 borrowers who have attended a campus operated by Corinthian Colleges, the largest single loan discharge in history. Even after that, about 43 million federal borrowers will still owe a total of $1.6 trillion in college debt, according to the Education Data Initiative. The US Office of Government Ethics has declined to comment on this letter.
While the White House staffers say Biden hasn’t decided on the proposal of student loan forgiveness, Graduation can be used as an opportunity by the President to give students a sigh of relief by announcing the plan. Whether he discusses his project in detail or provides an update on the decision, he will refer to the next steps for student loan borrowers. On April 28, Biden said he would decide whether to move further with the proposal or not. If the President announces an update on approving student loan forgiveness, it will be the second major education policy plan in the past week, and the first was an overhaul of student loan servicing.
August 31, 2022, will be the next deadline for student loan borrowers, ending temporary loan relief. Anyway, Biden’s announcement on student loan forgiveness keeps an eye on the end of the student loan payment pause. Preferably, it would help if you had everything set in your mind before the student loan payment restarts. Some of the most common student loan repayment plans include Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE).
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