Biden is planning to announce another student-loan payment-pause extension through August 31, reports say

• Biden is planning to announce an extension of the student-loan payment pause, three outlets report.
• This is his fourth extension, and it comes a few weeks before payments were set to resume on May 1.

Millions of federal student-loan borrowers are on track for some good news this week.

Multiple publications confirmed on Tuesday that President Joe Biden would announce another extension of the pause on student-loan payments this week. The pause, which was scheduled to expire on May 1, is now set to last until August 31, people familiar with the matter told Politico, the Associated Press, and Bloomberg. Over the past few months, Biden has been under increasing pressure to extend the pause on payments, given rising inflation and the ongoing pandemic, and the upcoming announcement marks his fourth extension of pandemic relief for borrowers.

"YES! This is an important step to ensure that working families' expenses aren't going up as we work to fight inflation and corporate greed," Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, tweeted following news of the announcement. "Now, let's cancel at least $50,000 per borrower."

—Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) April 5, 2022

This announcement follows comments from Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, last month. Klain told "Pod Save America" that Biden would either extend the pause on student-loan payments or decide what relief he could implement via executive action.

Notably, the extension through the end of August falls short of the relief that almost 100 Democratic lawmakers recently called for. They urged Biden to extend the pause through at least 2023 and cancel student debt in the meantime.

"Although there may be different ideas about the best way to structure cancellation, we all agree that you should cancel student debt now," they wrote. They added, "Given the fast-approaching deadline for borrowers to resume payments, your administration must act as quickly as possible to extend the pause and make clear to the American public your intention to cancel a meaningful amount of student debt."

It remains to be seen whether broad student-loan forgiveness is on the agenda. But recent polling indicated that debt forgiveness would lure voters to the polls for midterm elections, likely helping Democrats maintain their majority, which is at risk.