In an interview conducted on Sunday, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez criticised the Biden Administration’s new plan to reduce student loan debt.
Ocasio-Cortez criticized the Biden Administration’s plan not to report borrowers to the credit agencies, and stated that interest on debt should be suspended during the “on ramp” 12-month period.
“I’d like to see the interest payments suspended, especially during the 12-month ramp-up phase,” Ocasio Cortez told CNN’s Dana Bash. “There are many millions of Americans who have student loans under… $10,000 or $20,000. This is what the plan says.”
Ocasio Cortez said, “People shouldn’t be paying interest during the 12-month period of on-ramp.” “I urge the administration to suspend those interest payments. We still strongly believe that student loans should be cancelled and we will act faster than the 12-month period whenever possible.
Ocasio Cortez urged Biden to use Higher Education Act (HEA), to circumvent Supreme Court ruling. CBS News reports that the HEA allows the Secretary of Education to waive student loan payments “under certain conditions”.
She said that she and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with the White House about this plan. They were joined by many other advocates.
“And we truly think that the President – Congress gave the president this power. The Supreme Court has overstepped its authority. “I think, honestly, that we need to have conversations about judicial reviews as a way of checking the courts,” she said.
The Supreme Court overturned Friday the Biden Administration’s plan to cancel 400 billion dollars in student debt, forcing the President to come up a new approach.
Biden announced a 12-month program called “on-ramp” in which the Department of Education would not report borrowers’ names to credit agencies. Biden’s Administration wants to keep borrowers from falling into default or having their credit scores lowered while they prepare to start repayments.
