President Joe Biden said Thursday that he's “taking a hard look” at canceling additional federal student loan debt and will reach a decision within a month.
“I am considering dealing with some debt reduction,” Biden told reporters in the Roosevelt Room at the White House.
The comments came days after Biden had a private meeting with Democratic lawmakers who pressed him on the issue. One of the lawmakers, Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., said afterwards that Biden disclosed he was exploring the possibility.
However, Biden signaled in his Thursday remarks that he wouldn't go as far as some activists want, saying $50,000 in debt forgiveness was not under consideration. He did not give a number for what he was considering.
“I'm in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness,” he said. "And I’ll have an answer on that in the next couple of weeks.”
During his campaign, Biden said he wanted to “immediately cancel” at least $10,000 in student debt per person. So far he's repeatedly extended a pause on requiring borrowers to repay their loans, a moratorium that was put in place under then-President Donald Trump near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although activists have been encouraged by their increasing traction on this issue, some said they were concerned that Biden wouldn't go far enough.
“President Biden, we agree that we shouldn’t cancel $50,000 in student loan debt. We should cancel all of it,” said Wisdom Cole, national director of the NAACP Youth & College Division. “$50,000 was just the bottom line.”
A new federal rule would make it easier for companies to use drones over longer distances out of sight of the operator without having to go through a cumbersome waiver process.
President Donald Trump has signed the GENIUS Act into law, setting new regulations for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency tied to assets like the U.S. dollar.
A top Federal Reserve official said late Thursday that the central bank should cut its key interest rate later this month, carving out a different view than that of Chair Jerome Powell
Stocks fell on Wall Street as the Trump administration stepped up pressure on trading partners to make deals before punishing tariffs imposed by the U.S. take effect.
A stark disagreement over regulating AI in Republicans’ tax cut and spending bill is the latest tension among conservatives about whether to let states continue to put guardrails on emerging technologies or minimize such interference.
Amanda Chu of POLITICO reveals how lawmakers are betting millions on pharma stocks even as Trump threatens tariffs and demands steep drug price cuts. Watch!
At some 940-pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations.
