President Joe Biden is facing pressure from nearly 70 advocacy groups to broaden the scope of an alternative debt-relief plan the administration is set to release, changes they say are necessary to help blocs crucial to his re-election campaign including young people and people of color.
Major organizations, including the NAACP, AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers, signed a letter obtained by Bloomberg News urging the Education Department to hold another meeting in its rule-making process, which ended last month, that would allow stakeholders to address their concerns about the department’s draft proposal.
It’s the latest effort by civil-rights groups, labor unions and progressives to increase pressure on the White House to expand a replacement offering relief to student-loan borrowers after the US Supreme Court struck down Biden’s initial plan to forgive billions of dollars in debt.
The push has high stakes for the president’s re-election campaign, with polls showing his support weakening with Black, Hispanic and young voters.
The coalition expresses frustration that the department did not include targeted relief for borrowers who have experienced hardship in its draft proposal. The term “hardship” specifically is drawn from the Higher Education Act, a law that gives the Education secretary broad authorities to waive federal student loans.
“Failing to finalize a proposal to provide relief for borrowers experiencing hardship would result in millions of borrowers— including most recent graduates, many low-income borrowers, borrowers of color, and borrowers with disabilities— being left out of the necessary debt relief,” the groups write in the letter, addressed to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. “This cannot be an option.”
The department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
As of now, the proposal is expected to offer student-loan cancellation to specific individuals, such as borrowers with balances exceeding their original principal debt, those misled by unaccredited or for-profit schools and people not yet enrolled in qualified programs.
Before its last rule-making meeting, the Education Department said it would “consider relief options for borrowers experiencing financial hardship that the current loan system does not address,” but acknowledged it would not be “defining hardship” in the text of its proposed rule.
The National Action Network, led by Al Sharpton, as well as UnidosUS, the National Urban League, the Center for American Progress, and Public Citizen are among the organizations that signed the letter. Others include the Student Borrower Protection Center and National Consumer Law Center.