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Democrats want PLUS loans in relief plan

On September 12, eight Senate Democrats sent a letter to President Biden, urging him to extend student-loan debt relief to roughly 3.6 million borrowers under the Parent Loan for Undergraduate Student (PLUS) loan program. Biden’s debt relief plan instructed the Department of Education (DOE) to, among other things: (i) provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the DOE; (ii) provide up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year or less than $250,000 for married couples; and (iii) propose a new income-driven repayment (IDR) plan and cap monthly payments for undergraduate loans at 5 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income. Additionally, for IDR plans, Biden’s August announcement instructed the DOE to propose a rule to, among other things, reduce the amount that borrowers have to pay each month for undergraduate loans from 10 percent to 5 percent. The Senators expressed their concern that Biden’s recent actions do not appropriately cover Parent PLUS borrowers and urged his administration and the DOE to “to incorporate Parent PLUS borrowers in any administrative improvements to federal student loan programs, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Driven Repayment programs, extensions or creation of waivers, and in the implementation of executive actions to provide student debt relief.”

Federal Issues U.S. Senate Student Lending Biden Debt Cancellation Consumer Finance Income-Driven Repayment Department of Education PLUS Loans