Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is pushing forward with his proposal to provide a $10,000 payoff to all federal student loan borrowers.
“The next round of stimulus, we want to do that,” Brown told Cheddar from his home in Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday.
Brown said that he and other Democratic senators have already been partially successful with bringing relief to those burdened by student loan debt.
“Senator Warren and I wanted two major things. We wanted a freeze on payments so nobody had to pay during this six-month or so period,” Brown explained. “We also wanted $10,000 in forgiveness of federal loans. The Republicans wouldn’t accept that. Trump opposed that.”
Brown also lobbied for $4,500 in direct payments for every American adult and child, with restrictions on higher-income families. The $2.2 trillion stimulus package included a one-time payment of $1,200 to most adults and $500 for every child.
When asked about Republicans accusing Democrats of trying to use the coronavirus crisis to push long-sought progressive legislation, Brown shrugged off the criticism saying the government is obligated to take action.
“This is the role of government to help people that are unemployed, to help people that are sick, to help people that are struggling, to help people that are hungry,” he said. “I don’t apologize for a second for any of that.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reversing course on some masking guidelines. The agency announced new recommendations Tuesday that even vaccinated people should return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S.
President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi are set to announce that they’ve come to an agreement to end the U.S. military’s combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year.
The flame at Tokyo’s National Stadium and another cauldron burning along the waterfront near Tokyo Bay throughout the games will be sustained in part by hydrogen, the first time the clean fuel source will be used to power an Olympic fire.
Australia has garnered enough international support to defer for two years an attempt by the United Nations’ cultural organization to downgrade the Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage status because of damage caused by climate change.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week from the lowest point of the pandemic, even as the job market appears to be rebounding on the strength of a reopened economy
