President Biden is expected to sign executive orders his first day in office extending the federal eviction moratoriums through the end of March and will ask the Department of Education to extend the pause on interest and payments for federal student loans through September.
The executive orders are supposed to be part of an initial wave of 15 executive orders that have been previewed by Biden’s team in the days leading up to his swearing-in and span the creation of a Covid-19 response team that reports directly to the president, revoking the Keystone XL pipeline, shoring up protections for so-called Dreamers and rejoining the Paris climate accord, which would make the U.S. party to the agreement in 30 days.
For those with student loans, the expected Biden EO will extend CARES relief by continuing to automatically suspend monthly payments, and reducing interest to 0% through September.
In 2020, about one in four adults, nearly 45 million Americans, owed on student loans. Added together, they equaled more than $1.5 trillion, according to Brookings Research.
During his presidential campaign, President-elect Joe Biden also outlined several promises to reduce student debt, including:
• Immediate $10,000 forgiveness on federal loans.
• The chance to attend public college tuition-free if your family income is less than $125,000.
• Reduce the requirements for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
Biden’s “education beyond high school agenda” calls for making public colleges and universities tuition-free for all students with family incomes below $125,000.
The CARES Act provided a temporary moratorium on eviction filings as well as other protections for tenants in certain rental properties with federal assistance or federally related financing. The protections are designed to alleviate the economic and public health consequences of tenant displacement during the Covid-19 outbreak. The Biden administration’s actions will also supplement temporary eviction moratoria and rent freezes implemented in states and cities by governors and local officials using emergency powers.
Biden also plans to call on lawmakers to extend the moratorium and foreclosures until Sept. 30, while also setting aside funds to provide legal assistance to households facing foreclosure or eviction. He has also called for housing agencies to continue allowing applications for forbearance on federally backed mortgages until that date.
Foreclosures were paused last spring early in the pandemic. The CARES Act included an eviction moratorium through late July that only applied to certain, federally funded rental units. But in September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a nationwide moratorium on evictions that covered the vast majority of renters nationwide.
The latter moratorium was set to expire at the end of December, but the stimulus package passed by Congress last month extended it until Jan. 31. Extending the national eviction moratorium even further was a priority for housing advocates, who have warned that the assistance provided by previous stimulus packages would not be enough to prevent a full-fledged housing crisis.
Not only would this massive wave of evictions be financially devastating to potentially millions of Americans, it could also jeopardize public health. Prior to the implementation of the national eviction moratorium, states that allowed their own moratoria to expire saw a higher rate of Covid-19 cases and deaths than the states that maintained the bans, according to a new study that looked at the impact of evictions in 44 states.