Rep. Courtney Statement on President Biden’s Extension of ‘Payment Pause’ on Federal Student Loans

NORWICH, CT—Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), a senior Member of the House Education and Labor Committee, released the following statement regarding President Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona's announcement that they will extend the current "payment pause" on federal student loan repayment, interest, and collections:

"President Biden's decision to extend an interest-free ‘payment pause' for federal student loans is welcome news for borrowers who are still recovering from the adverse economic impact of the COVID pandemic," said Rep. Courtney. "Federal student loan debt still lingers over millions of middle-class borrowers and families which, even with today's positive jobs numbers, could act as a massive drag on the nation's recovery. Myself and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley led a letter with 60 Members of Congress dated June 23^rd, 2021, calling on President Biden to take today's action for precisely that reason. His decision mirrors that of the Small Business Administration, which extended payment deferment of SBA COVID loans last March until December 31, 2022. President Biden wisely recognized that the abrupt ‘snapping back' of monthly payments for federal student loans and SBA small business loans will act as an unneeded drag on the U.S. economy."

Rep. Courtney continued: "This past week, as a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, I had a very productive conference call with U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona about ways the Administration and Congress can work together to reduce student loan debt by fixing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, as well as restructuring Federal Direct Loans by refinancing legacy high-interest loan debt. Both the Administration and the Congress should take advantage of this respite to fix the underlying problem, which affects tens of millions of Americans."

On June 23^rd, Rep. Courtney was joined by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) in writing to President Biden, calling on the Administration to extend the pause on federal student loan payments. Click here to read their letter.

Courtney began the current 117^th Congress by introducing new legislation to this effect. On January 21, 2021, Courtney introduced the COVID-19 Student Loan Relief Extension Act, a bill that would have not only extended student loan forbearance relief period, but would also expand coverage to student loan borrowers who were excluded from support by the Trump Administration. Click here to read more.

Courtney is a senior member of the House Education and Labor Committee, and was focused on lowering the cost of higher education and easing student debt long before the pandemic. This year, Courtney has introduced two other bills that seek to address the root causes of the problem. In May, Courtney introduce the Zero-Percent Student Loan Refinancing Act (H.R. 3024), a new bill that would allow Americans with federal student loans to refinance their debt to an interest rate of 0%. Recently, the Federal Reserve Board and its Chairman Jerome Powell declared that the benchmark interest rate will remain at essentially zero for the balance of 2021, 2022, and well into 2023. Rep. Courtney's bill would give public borrowers the same opportunity to take advantage of this low-rate environment that so many borrowers in other sectors of the economy will utilize.

Courtney also introduced the bipartisan Recognizing Military Service in PSLF Act (H.R. 3486), a new bill that would finally enable American service members to count the full length of their service towards the Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Existing rules prevent many active duty servicemembers who have deployed far away from their families from applying their full period of service towards PSLF—meaning that they are made to complete a longer period of service before qualifying for student loan forgiveness. Courtney's bill would ensure that American servicemembers have their full service periods appropriately counted towards their loan forgiveness.

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