Student-loan borrowers don't need 'quick fixes,' a top Democratic senator says she wants a pause on payments through 2023

• Sen. Patty Murray said Biden's four month extension of the student-loan payment pause isn't enough.
• She continued to call for an extension through 2023 to allow time for permanent fixes to the loan industry.

Four months of extra relief for student-loan borrowers isn't enough, a top Democratic lawmaker says.

There's no doubt that President Joe Biden's Wednesday announcement — that he is extending the pause on student-loan payments again, through August 31 — was welcome news to many borrowers, lawmakers, and advocates. But the Chair of the Senate education committee Patty Murray wishes the president had taken this relief a step further by extending the pause through 2023 and implementing permanent fixes to the student-loan industry.

"I'm glad they took action today, but there's much more to do," Murray said in a statement. "This pause is urgently needed and will take stress off the shoulders of so many borrowers, but we need long-lasting change and a student loan system that actually works for students and borrowers—not just quick fixes."

"I've outlined a clear plan the Administration must follow and I'm glad to see they intend to act to give struggling borrowers a fresh start," she added. "But the Administration must also forgive some debt for all borrowers and fix our student loan system once and for all—including by fixing our badly broken income driven repayment system and creating a new Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that works for our public servants."

When payments were scheduled to resume on May 1, Murray last month called on Biden to extend the pause through at least 2023 to give his administration the time they need to "permanently fix" flaws in the student-loan industry, like broken loan forgiveness programs. One of her requests including giving defaulted borrowers a fresh start and returning them to good standing when they enter repayment, which Biden did follow through on in Wednesday's announcement.

Her other requests, like reforming income-driven repayment plans and extending the Public Service Loan Forgiveness waiver that allows prior ineligible payments to count toward loan forgiveness, were not addressed, warranting her calls for further relief.

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez expressed similar concerns in a Wednesday statement.

"Before restarting student loan payments, I urge him to exercise his full executive authority under existing law to cancel up to $50,000 in student loans," Menendez said. "I also urge him to further extend this pause—beyond August 31^st—to fix longstanding issues with income based repayment (IBR), public service loan forgiveness (PSLF), and issues regarding federal student loan servicers."

Biden's statement on Wednesday did not include any mention of broad student-loan forgiveness. He said that borrowers should work with the Education Department to "prepare for a return to repayment," but Democratic lawmakers remain adamant payments should not resume until fixes to the industry are made, and debt is canceled.