Biden can 'put money in millions of people's pockets' by canceling student debt on his own, progressive lawmakers say

• The Congressional Progressive Caucus listed eight policies on which Biden should use executive action.
• Broad student-loan relief was included in the recommendations.

Broad student-loan relief made it onto progressive lawmakers' list of priorities President Joe Biden should act on using executive action.

On Thursday, the 98-member Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) released an agenda it is urging Biden to use his executive powers to deliver on. Those policies included lowering health care costs, combatting the climate crisis, investing in care-economy jobs, and canceling federal student-loan debt — all issues that are core to progressives' agenda, and to many of their voters as well.

When it comes to broad student-loan relief, the progressive lawmakers made clear there's no doubt Biden can act on the issue on his own.

"45 million Americans are stuck in the student debt trap, preventing them from buying homes, starting families, and investing in their communities," the agenda said. "This crisis disproportionately affects Black and Brown borrowers, who are seeing student debt drag down their finances even past retirement age. The CPC is calling on the Biden administration to put money in millions of people's pockets by using existing authorities to cancel federal student loan debt."

Since Biden took office, he has been under increasing pressure to act on the $1.7 trillion student debt crisis impacting 45 million Americans. He has extended the pause on student-loan payments, with waived interest, three times so far — the most recent extension ends on May 1. Progressive lawmakers have said that while the payment pauses have been welcome relief, the president should go a step further and forgive some, or all, student debt for borrowers.

During a Thursday press call, Chair of the CPC Rep. Pramila Jayapal told reporters that she's "continuing to push very hard" for action on student debt, and the list of executive action recommendations is just the latest of that push. She also noted that while Biden pledged to approve $10,000 in student-loan relief during his campaign, the caucus did not recommend a specific amount of relief because the goal right now is to "make progress" on the crisis.

"I have been calling for at least $50,000. The president promised at least $10,000 during the campaign. So the number is somewhere in the midst of that," Jayapal said. She added that "if you have the executive authority to cancel [$10,000 in student debt] you should have the executive authority to cancel [$50,000 in student debt]. And that would be an enormous boon to the economy."

Where Biden stands on broad student-loan relief

While Biden has made use of his executive powers to extend the pause on student-loan payments, it's a bit trickier for him when it comes to carrying out broad debt relief. In April, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Biden asked the Education Department to create a memo on his legal ability to wipe out a large amount of student debt for every federal borrower by executive action.

However, redacted documents released in October revealed the memo has existed since April but Biden is choosing not to release its contents. While he likely knows whether or not he can legally wipe out student debt on his own, millions of federal borrowers do not.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also has said on multiple occasions that if Congress sends Biden a bill to cancel student debt, he would be happy to sign it. But progressive lawmakers like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — who championed the proposal to cancel $50,000 in student debt — previously said going the legislative route would take too long, and likely would not succeed because of partisanship in Congress.

Still, the most pressing issue right now is the expected student-loan payment resumption on May 1. As pressure mounts for Biden to extend the pause, Klain recently said borrowers may be on the hook for more relief in the coming months.

"The President is going to look at what we should do on student debt before the pause expires, or he'll extend the pause," Klain said, adding that "the question whether or not there's some executive action on student debt forgiveness when payments resume is a decision we're going to take before payments resume."