GOP senators unveil student debt proposal

Republican senators unveiled a package of five bills aimed at addressing the skyrocketing cost of attending college – in response to President Biden’s student debt cancellation.

The package is unlikely to come to a vote in the Democratic-led Senate, but comes as borrowers across the country will have to start paying their student loan bills for the first time since 2020.

Under the negotiated Biden-McCarthy debt limit agreement passed last month, federal student borrowers will have to begin repaying their loans no later than August 29.

The Supreme Court is expected to separately rule on the student debt plan by the end of June. The $400 billion plan forgives up to $20,000 in student debt for those earning less than $125,000.

A group of GOP senators from the Health Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee launched their own proposal on Wednesday to deal with rising tuition fees and blamed easy federal student loans for being the determining factor in the soaring prices of universities.

The senses. Bill Cassidy, R-La., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Steve Daines, R-Mont., all wrote invoices included in the package. .

“The last 35 years have shown that a government blank check to universities has made the problems worse. Unlimited government loans have done nothing to improve access to education,” Tuberville said. “Today we are here to say enough is enough.”

The proposal caps graduate student loans, meaning that students pursuing higher education could no longer borrow unlimited amounts of money from the federal government. The program would only allow aid of $20,500 each year for a graduate degree.

For those in professional programs like medical school, that cap would be $40,500 per year.

Student debt related to graduate degrees has ballooned in recent decades – graduate students now take out almost half of new student loans.

It would also prevent federal aid from going to certain degree programs at a university if the earnings of graduates from that program show that they are too low.

The median earnings of graduates with a bachelor’s degree in a certain program 10 years after completion must exceed the median earnings of working adults aged 25 to 34 with only a high school diploma.

When asked if the program was designed to stifle support for liberal arts majors, HELP Ranking member Cassidy said, “If the degree you’re taking is $50,000 a year, a cumulative debt $200,000 and he’s going to pay you $40,000 a year, I don’t think the taxpayer should subsidize him.

It would also streamline repayment with just two options: a standard 10-year repayment plan or an income-based repayment plan.

The package would also reform the college data reporting system to provide more transparency on things like retention rates, college costs and postgraduate outcomes. Higher education should use a uniform financial aid letter.

At the same time, the Republican proposal came out. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., unveiled a bill to make all public colleges free.

“You will never know how expensive something is until you make it free,” Cassidy said in response to the proposal.

Cassidy also tore up Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which is currently stalled in the court system pending Supreme Court action. “Biden’s plan does nothing to aggravate the underlying cause of the debt crisis,” he said.

Cassidy also tore up Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which is currently stalled in the court system pending Supreme Court action.

“Biden’s scheme does nothing to aggravate the underlying cause of the debt crisis,” he said.

“If this transfer of the student debt load takes effect, students and taxpayers, we will be back in the same situation in five years – the total debt at that time will be $1.6 billion. said Cassidy, citing figures from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

‘This is not a solution. It’s just a bandage.

Outstanding federal student loans total about $1.6 trillion held by some 43 million Americans.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday the White House was “confident” in the legal avenues for the relief plan to move forward regardless of the Supreme Court’s outcome.

“We will leave it to the Department of Justice to continue to protect a plan that the President believes is extremely important for American families.”