To back her plan to use executive authority, Warren released a letter signed by members of Harvard Law School’s Legal Services Center that the campaign said outlines the president’s legal authority to direct the secretary of Education to execute her proposals “on day one.”
“Congress has granted the secretary a more specific and unrestricted authority to create and to cancel or modify debt owed under federal student loan programs,” the letter read. “That provision empowers the secretary to execute the broad debt cancellation plan you have proposed.”
Warren is appealing to younger voters who currently support Sanders. He has also proposed canceling student debt. A Quinnipiac University Poll found that Warren polled at 18% among voters between 18 to 34, while Sanders polled at 39%.
As the cost of college tuition soars, student loans are a salient pocketbook issue for millennials — the largest generation of eligible voters and a Democratic-leaning cohort — and Gen Z voters, many of whom will have access to the ballot box for the first time in 2020. Student debt topped $1.63 trillion in late 2019, according to the Federal Reserve.
Warren has zeroed in on the issue as a senator and presidential candidate. Last week she proposed to allow people to discharge student loan obligations in bankruptcy.
A Quinnipiac national poll in May found that 57% of Americans support Warren’s student loan policy, while 40% oppose it. Among Democrats, who will begin to pick their nominee next month, 79% supported it.
And among voters under 35 regardless of party, support was 74% and opposition was 25%.
The new plan is among several that Warren is releasing in the final stretch before Iowa kicks off the nominating contest.
--With assistance from Gregory Korte and Shahien Nasiripour.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.