Drew Angerer/Getty Images
A leading Democratic lawmaker thinks her party can be doing more to tout President Joe Biden's work — especially when it comes to student-debt relief.
On Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined NBC's Meet the Press to discuss, among other things, the future of the Democratic Party with a presidential election at stake. She said that as her party is gearing up to excite voters, it's important that Democrats are vocal about the positive things Biden has done for Americans — and currently, she said, lawmakers aren't talking about those things enough.
"I think we can certainly do more to be advancing our vision," Ocasio-Cortez said. She referenced Biden's efforts to forgive student debt, particularly through a new provision in his SAVE income-driven repayment plan that would wipe out balances of borrowers who originally borrowed $12,000 or less and have completed as few as 10 years of qualifying payments.
"The president has advanced student loan forgiveness just this month for people who have taken out SAVE loans under $12,000. They will see their loans wiped out," Ocasio-Cortez said.
Along with the relief Ocasio-Cortez referenced through the SAVE plan, Biden and his Education Department have also announced batches of borrowers that qualified for relief over the past few months through account adjustments targeted to those who have made the qualifying number of payments on income-driven repayment plans or Public Service Loan Forgiveness but had yet to receive relief.
Still, some borrowers have been disappointed that the scale of the relief is not broader. While Biden attempted to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers making under $125,000 in 2022, the Supreme Court struck down that plan at the end of June.
As a result, the Education Department began pursuing a new route for relief using the Higher Education Act of 1965. However, that law requires the administration to undergo a lengthy process that involves a series of negotiations with stakeholders and periods of public comment to draft the final rule.
The department concluded negotiations in December and proposed five groups of borrowers it's considering for the second attempt at relief. It did not include a category for borrowers experiencing financial hardship, so it's a much narrower scale than what some of the negotiators and lawmakers were hoping for.
"While we appreciate the efforts of the Department and the negotiating committee, we are concerned that, without full consideration of cancellation targeted toward borrowers facing financial hardship, the rule will not provide adequate debt relief for the most vulnerable borrowers," the lawmakers wrote.
Still, Biden and the Education Department have vowed to work quickly to get as much relief to borrowers as they can under the law. The department said it would continue to evaluate borrowers' accounts to determine if they met the qualifying payments to have their balances wiped out, but these efforts are coming as many are grappling with payments resuming after an over three-year pause, bringing an additional strain to some of their budgets.
When it comes to the upcoming election, Ocasio-Cortez said that even given the challenges many Americans are facing right now, Biden is "the strongest nominee" for Democrats — and her party needs to be more vocal about why he should be reelected.
"I do believe that advancing that affirmative vision is going to be very, very important as – as well as really laying out and showing, between now and November, through our governing decisions, our governing decisions, when we have that power in the White House, what we are willing to do with it," she said.
