WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) released a statement following President Biden’s unilateral decision to forgive the student loan debt of some borrowers and extend the pause on payments through December 31, 2022.
“President Biden didn’t ‘forgive student debt,’ he chose to shift the burden of the well-off onto the backs of the 87 percent of Americans who chose to not go to college, already paid off their loans, or saved to not take them out in the first place,” said Dr. Cassidy. “This decision is a spit in the face of Louisiana families who are struggling to get by. This is spending at least $300 billion we do not have which will make inflation worse. It does nothing to get at the root problem of the high price of education while costing $2,000 per taxpayer.”
According to the Penn-Wharton Budget Model, 87 percent of American adults don’t have student loans at all.
To bring greater transparency to college costs and post-college earnings, Cassidy is the lead sponsor of the College Transparency Act (CTA), bipartisan legislation to ensure students and families have clear and understandable information as they compare higher education opportunities. The CTA modernizes the college reporting system for postsecondary data by providing accurate reporting on student outcomes such as enrollment, completion, and post-college earnings across colleges and majors, while ensuring the privacy of individual students is securely protected.
Earlier this year, Cassidy helped introduced the Student Loan Accountability Act to prohibit the Biden administration from cancelling student loan debt at the expense of millions of Americans who chose to not go to college or worked diligently to pay off any student debt. Cassidy also cosponsored the Stop Reckless Student Loan Actions Act that would end President Biden’s untargeted, budget-busting suspension of repayments on qualifying federal student loans, following 24 months of non-payment and six executive actions extending the payment pause. The bill would still allow the president to temporarily suspend repayment for low- and middle-income borrowers in future national emergencies and would prohibit the president from cancelling outstanding federal student loan obligations due to a national emergency.
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