Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) stated that he will meet with President Biden today to advocate for a student loan forgiveness amount “that would make a difference,” The Hill reports. After an April meeting that the President had with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, he said his administration was looking into various options to forgive “an unspecified but substantial amount of federal student loan debt.”
“I’m meeting with the president later today, and I’m going to push him on this issue. Everywhere I go in Georgia, students and families talk to me about the crush of student debt,” Warnock told The Hill. “And, in this time in which I’m focused on providing relief for families that are feeling the pressure, this couldn’t come sooner.”
Last week, Warnock, along with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), reached out to Biden and asked to temporarily hold off on any potential action on student loans to push for more significant action. When Sen. Warnock was asked about the potential to cancel $50,000 for each federal borrower, as Sen. Warren has advocated for,
Warnock replied, “I’d love to see him do that. We certainly need to do more than $10,000.”
From the start of his 2020 campaign, President Biden has said that he would be open to cancel up to $10,000 of student loan debt per borrower. There are a lot of legal questions surrounding how much the President can forgive through executive action. The Biden administration has also been looking into income limits regarding who will receive cancellations. Sen. Warnock stated he would be open to the idea of means-testing.