Tag Archives : Build House

Biden admin’s student aid website overwhelmed after relief announcement

The federal student aid website received a flood of visitors Wednesday in the aftermath of President Biden announcing he will forgive up to $10,000 of student loans for certain borrowers, causing the site to slow. 

The website is where borrowers can determine if they are eligible for the forgiveness measures that Biden announced. The president said in his remarks on Wednesday that the federal government will forgive $10,000 for individuals making less than $125,000 annually and will clear up to $20,000 for recipients of Pell Grants, which are reserved for those with the largest financial need. 

“A lot of people are interested in our website. As a result, some pages may take longer to display than usual. Thank you for your patience,” a message at the top of the website’s page reads upon opening. 

Some users were also sent to a waiting room page before gaining access to the site shortly after. 

The White House and Education Department did not immediately return requests from The Hill for comment. 

Biden also said his administration will allow borrowers to limit the amount they repay monthly for their undergraduate loans to 5 percent of their monthly income. He extended the freeze on repayment, which has been in effect since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, one more time to Dec. 31. 

Nelnet, a financial services company that processes federal student loans, also reported technical issues because of high traffic following Biden’s announcement. The company said in a tweet that the Education Department determines eligibility and the federal student aid website’s page on Biden’s forgiveness plan is the best source of information.

Source: TEST FEED1

Energy & Environment — California to ban new gas-powered cars after 2035 

California is on track to ban new gas-powered car sales this week. Meanwhile, an Interior Department watchdog says a former secretary lied to investigators, and drought threatens “catastrophe” in the Horn of Africa. 

This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. 

California to pass 2035 ban of gas car sales

California is expected on Thursday to approve a ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars that would begin in 2035.  

The state’s Air Resources Board on Thursday will vote on the ban, which would also ratchet up the percentage of vehicles sold in the state that are electric leading up to the 2035 date.  

What comes next? California’s clean car standards are also often adopted by other states, so the impact of this rule could stretch far beyond its borders. 

Gas-powered cars are a major source of climate-warming emissions and other air pollutants, and the measure has been touted as an attempt to both tackle climate change and improve public health. 

In 2020, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) issued an executive order seeking to phase out the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035, but Thursday’s action will actually put that goal in motion.  

How does it compare to the White House target? The California plan is more ambitious than federal goals. President Biden said last year that he hoped that half of new vehicle sales would be electric by 2030. That year, California’s regulations would mandate 68 percent of vehicle sales in the state are electric. 

Automakers in recent months have moved toward increasing electric vehicle sales, with several making pledges to increase the proportion of vehicles they sell that are electric. 

Read more about the rule here. 

Watchdog: Trump Interior head misled investigators 

Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his chief of staff misled an internal federal watchdog about the department’s decision to punt on a proposed Native American casino in Connecticut, the watchdog said in a report released Wednesday. 

The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) wrote in the report that in May 2017, an unnamed political consultant texted a casino lobbyist to inform him he would be dining with Zinke. The consultant confirmed to the OIG that he and Zinke regularly dined together and discussed the casino lobby’s arguments against amendments by two tribes to allow them to construct casinos off-reservation.  

In interviews with OIG personnel, Zinke — who is now the GOP nominee for a new congressional district in western Montana — reportedly said he had not discussed the matter with the lobbyist, who was also unnamed, saying if he had interacted with the lobbyist it was only in a casual social setting.

• However, in the report, OIG wrote that “extensive evidence” indicated the lobbyist had specifically used the consultant to convey his concerns to Zinke. 
• The consultant told the OIG that in addition to discussing the casino’s arguments against the tribes at multiple dinners, he also asked Zinke if he could send him a one-page summary of those arguments in August 2017, to which Zinke responded, “Sure.”
• Later that month, both the lobbyist and the consultant dined at Zinke’s house, which the consultant said was specifically to allow the lobbyist to make his case directly to Zinke.  

The OIG referred its finding in 2018 to the Justice Department, which declined to take action. 

Zinke responds: In a response included with the OIG report, Zinke denied any wrongdoing and suggested the report’s release was improper ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, as he is a candidate for a House seat. Zinke’s attorneys also called the report’s findings inaccurate, noting that he did not outright reject the proposal and thus “did not adopt the position of any lobbyist for or against the project.” 

Read more about the report here. 

Kids enduring Africa drought close to ‘catastrophe’

Children in two vast regions of Africa could die in devastating numbers due to the compounding effects of malnutrition and waterborne illnesses, the United Nations’s International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday. 

The children at particular risk are those who live in the Horn of Africa — Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia — and several countries in the semi-arid Sahel region, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, according to the agency. 

UNICEF issued the warning in conjunction with the first day of World Water Week — organized annually by the Stockholm International Water Institute — which began on the same morning. 

“History shows that when high levels of severe acute malnutrition in children combine with deadly outbreaks of diseases like cholera or diarrhea, child mortality rises dramatically – and tragically,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

“When water either isn’t available or is unsafe, the risks to children multiply exponentially,” Russell continued. “Across the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, millions of children are just one disease away from catastrophe.” 

More than 2.8 million children across these two regions are already enduring acute malnutrition, meaning that they are at up to 11 times greater risk of dying from waterborne illnesses than their well-nourished peers, according to UNICEF. 

Read more from The Hill’s Sharon Udasin. 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• This massive wind farm could save California — and forever change the American West (The Los Angeles Times) 
• The Gulf’s first offshore wind energy zones prompt concerns from Texas, shrugs from Louisiana (NOLA.com) 
• Biden admin eyes funding Canadian mining (E&E News) 
• Beshear calls special session of Kentucky legislature to address flood relief (The Courier-Journal) 
• Solar power is booming in Germany as Russia turns down the gas (CNN)

💒 Lighter click: Swimming down the aisle. 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Energy & Environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.  

VIEW FULL VERSION HERE

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Kim Kardashian beats Hillary Clinton in legal knowledge trivia quiz

Reality-star-turned-criminal-reform-advocate Kim Kardashian bested Hillary Clinton in a legal knowledge trivia contest during filming for “Gutsy,” Clinton’s forthcoming documentary series on women with her daughter Chelsea Clinton, People reports.

The mother-daughter-duo sat down with Kardashian, who in December announced she had passed her first “baby bar” exam, to discuss her criminal justice work, which the former Democratic presidential nominee and secretary of State called “impressive.”

“She’s very self-aware that her celebrity can make a difference positively, and where it may make a negative difference,” Clinton said of the mogul.

Clinton added, “She never wants to make a negative difference, so being judicious and thoughtful about when and where and how she engages was really impressive to us. I want, even beyond this series, to do whatever I can to help her in that work.”

Kardashian showcased her “impressive” knowledge by winning the trivia contest, which consisted of questions on topics such as use of deadly force, 11-4.

Clinton, who has a law degree from Yale, jokingly said her loss was more than just humbling.

“Oh, it was heartbreaking!” she told People.

Chelsea Clinton defended her mother, saying her loss appeared to be a result of reaction time.

“Sometimes, I could see my mom knew what the answer was, but she wouldn’t hit the buzzer in time,” the writer and global health advocate said in a video clip published by People.

Clinton said she was also intrigued by how well Kardashian performed.

“Mom, you made a good effort,” Chelsea said.

Kardashian has used her celebrity status to bring attention to several cases, including pushing for the jailed father of a Uvalde, Texas, school shooting victim to be allowed to attend his child’s funeral in June.

“Gusty,” based on the Clintons’ 2019 book “The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience,” is set to premiere Sept. 9. on Apple TV+.

Source: TEST FEED1

House panel details Trump pressure on FDA for discredited COVID treatment, vaccines

Top Trump administration officials pressured the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reauthorize the discredited COVID-19 treatment hydroxychloroquine, and to speed up the release of the first COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new report Democrats on the House select coronavirus subcommittee released Wednesday.

Emails, text messages and testimony obtained by the committee show the Trump White House “exerted extreme and inappropriate pressure” on the FDA to reauthorize hydroxychloroquine even after it was shown to be ineffective and potentially dangerous.

The report found administration officials like trade advisor Peter Navarro enlisted outside allies like Fox News host Laura Ingraham and daytime TV talk show host Mehmet Oz — now the GOP nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania — to amplify pressure on the FDA to authorize hydroxychloroquine, a drug normally used to treat malaria and lupus, as a COVID-19 treatment.

Hydroxychloroquine has been heavily promoted as a treatment for the virus by Trump allies despite almost no evidence.

Navarro and Steven Hatfill, an adjunct assistant professor at George Washington University brought on by Navarro as an adviser to the coronavirus response, led coordinated attacks on FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, Anthony Fauci and other health officials who refused to support hydroxychloroquine.

“Newly released evidence shows that Dr. Hatfill and Mr. Navarro used their direct access to top public health officials in an attempt to strongarm them into supporting hydroxychloroquine,” the report stated. 

The FDA issued an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine in late March 2020, but then revoked it less than three months later.

The report also details how the Trump administration influenced the FDA to deliver misleadingly positive news about convalescent plasma as a coronavirus treatment on the eve of the 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC) and White House attempts to block the FDA from collecting additional safety data on the first coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to ensure that it could be authorized before the 2020 presidential election. 

Trump later attacked Hahn, without evidence, for deliberately slowing down the authorizations of the vaccine and convalescent plasma because of politics.   

“The Select Subcommittee’s findings that Trump White House officials deliberately and repeatedly sought to bend FDA’s scientific work on coronavirus treatments and vaccines to the White House’s political will are yet another example of how the prior Administration prioritized politics over public health,” Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the panel’s chair, said in a statement.

The efforts by members of the Trump administration, including the former president, to meddle with public health agencies has been well documented. However, the report offers new levels of detail on the pressures put on the FDA in 2020. 

Clyburn noted the Trump administration’s attacks on public health officials helped contribute to a politicization of science, and reduced the public’s trust in the government.

“These assaults on our nation’s public health institutions undermined the nation’s coronavirus response—and are precisely why we must never again settle for leaders who prioritize politics over keeping Americans safe,” Clyburn said.

In testimony before committee staff, Hahn said he felt pressure because of Navarro’s “persistence” in insisting that hydroxychloroquine worked and should be reauthorized, despite strong evidence to the contrary.

“We took a different stance at the FDA,” Hahn said. “So that disagreement, which of course ultimately became somewhat public, was a source of pressure.” 

In an emailed statement, Navarro said the select subcommittee was “wrongly” perpetuating that hydroxychloroquine “was somehow dangerous.”

Navarro also cited excerpts from his memoir that chronicled his clashes with what he described as the “never-Trump FDA.”

The subcommittee report also details how the FDA wanted to advise vaccine manufacturers that the FDA wanted 60 days worth of followup patient safety data before applications for emergency use authorization were filed. That request would mean authorization wouldn’t occur until after the November 2020 election.

Trump had repeatedly said the shots would be authorized before Election Day, despite experts and agency scientists signaling it was unlikely.

Hahn told the committee the agency faced “pushback about the issue” from multiple officials, including Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Meadows said the White House wouldn’t sign off on the guidance, because of the 60-day requirement. 

The agency eventually circumvented the White House by quietly publishing the 60-day data request as part of a larger set of background documents for industry. Meadows later that day told Hahn the White House had cleared the release of the guidance.

Trump later attacked the FDA on Twitter.

“New FDA Rules make it more difficult for them to speed up vaccines for approval before Election Day. Just another political hit job!” Trump wrote, tagging Hahn.

Source: TEST FEED1

Kushner on Mar-a-Lago docs: Trump 'governed in a very peculiar way'

Trump White House senior adviser Jared Kushner on Wednesday defended the former president for keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home after leaving office, saying Trump “governed in a very peculiar way.”

“I’m not familiar with what was in the boxes, but I think President Trump, you know, he governed in a very peculiar way, and he — when he had his documents, I’m assuming he did what he thought was appropriate,” Kushner said on FOX News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” when asked whether Trump made a mistake by taking the material to his Palm Beach, Fla., resort. 

Earlier this year and during the recent FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, the Justice Department (DOJ) had reportedly recovered hundreds of classified materials from the former president’s residence. 

Keeping the records past the end of his presidential term goes against the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation and transfer of the documents to the National Archives.

The National Archives announced Tuesday that the Justice Department (DOJ) had recovered at least 100 classified documents back in January, and New York Times reporting shows more than 300 documents have been recovered total since Trump left office.

The FBI reportedly seized 11 boxes of classified material from Mar-a-Lago when it executed a search warrant there earlier this month. The newly unsealed warrant indicates Trump is under investigation for possible violations of the Espionage Act and other laws in relation to the documents. 

“Well, the DOJ, again, they have unfettered resources. They have unfettered power, right? And so, they’ve been trying to get Trump now for six years,” Kushner said Wednesday. 

The ex-Trump administration official is the former president’s son-in-law, Ivanka Trump’s husband, and the author of a newly-released memoir, “Breaking History.”

“I write about this a lot in my book, what it was like being through what I call investigation number one, where they were accusing us of colluding with Russia, which was totally crazy. We knew it, but it still took us two years to go through it,” Kushner said.

“And what you’re seeing here in terms of how it’s playing out is a very similar thing where, you know, people have lost faith in the FBI and the Department of Justice.”

The book, which details Kushner’s experience with Trump’s campaign and administration, got a scathing review from The New York Times.

Source: TEST FEED1

'We have a hell of a chance': Special elections fuel Democratic hopes in the House

Democrats are coming off a special election win in New York with a fresh burst of energy and a sense that the 2022 midterm elections might not deliver the kind of devastating blow to their House majority that they have long feared.

Pat Ryan, a Democratic county executive, narrowly defeated Republican Marc Molinaro on Tuesday in the race for a vacant House seat in New York’s Hudson Valley that was largely seen as bellwether for the political climate heading into the fall. 

Ryan’s win was, in and of itself, a massive boon for House Democrats eager to stave off an electoral thrashing in November. But it was also only the latest in a series of better-than-expected special election performances for the party and the latest sign that the political tides may be shifting in Democrats’ favor. 

“It’s a friendly reminder that every time the narrative counts us out, we know how to change it,” Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist and senior adviser to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), said. “You can’t always predict what defines an election six or seven months out. And the very things that Republicans and the media have considered to define the election, haven’t defined this election.”

“I do think we have a hell of a chance of maintaining this majority,” he added.

To be sure, special elections aren’t necessarily the best indicators for how the general elections will shake out. 

Turnout tends to be lower, and as political strategists and operatives on both sides of the aisle like to point out, special elections are just that: special. Michael McAdams, the communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, noted as much on Wednesday.

“Majorities are won in November not August,” McAdams said in a statement. “We look forward to prosecuting the case against Democrats’ failed one party rule that’s left American families worse off.”

But Democrats are nonetheless buoyed as they begin the sprint to the general election, pointing to perhaps the most powerful driving force behind their recent special election performances: the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this summer to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

Since then, Democrats have sought to rally voters around the idea that a Republican-controlled Congress could further erode protections for reproductive rights, a strategy that has so far shown signs of paying off.

In each of the four special elections decided since the Supreme Court made its ruling — one in Nebraska, one in Minnesota and two in New York — Democrats have outpaced President Biden’s 2020 performance, even in the three they lost. In Alaska, a state former President Trump carried by 10 points in 2020, Democrat Mary Peltola leads the field in the special election for the at-large House seat, though results are still being tabulated.

The issue of abortion rights proved particularly pivotal in the special election in New York’s 19th District on Tuesday. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, Ryan centered his campaign around reproductive rights, casting the special election as a chance for voters to register their outrage at efforts to restrict abortion access.

Molinaro, meanwhile, focused more on issues like crime and inflation. While he has said that he opposes a federal ban on abortions, Ryan still hammered him over his belief that the issue should be decided by the states.

Chris Taylor, a spokesperson for the DCCC, cast Ryan’s victory as the latest sign that voters are poised to reject Republicans this fall over the GOP’s approach to abortion rights, proclaiming that “House Republicans’ dream of a red wave has gone up in smoke.”

“For the fourth time this summer, voters rejected MAGA Republicans’ extreme attempt to rip away women’s freedoms by backing Democrats because they know we’ll protect their freedoms,” Taylor said. “Every day between now and Election Day we’ll make sure voters know Democrats are the party of freedom and MAGA Republicans are the party of extremism.” 

One national Republican strategist, however, attributed Molinaro’s loss in the Hudson Valley district on Tuesday in part to low turnout among independents, who are unaccustomed to voting in primary elections in New York because of the state’s partisan nominating contests. 

“Our fear, which turned out to be true, was that independents do not turn out on primary day in New York because New York has a closed primary system,” the strategist said. “What you saw was just partisan turnout. The general election in this district is going to look very different than last night’s special election.”

And Democrats are still facing strong headwinds in their bid to hold their House majority. 

The party in power almost always loses ground in Congress in midterm elections, and Biden’s approval ratings have lingered underwater for the past year. What’s more, the GOP needs to gain just five seats to recapture control of the lower chamber, and the party is poised to pick up a handful of those seats thanks to redistricting alone.

Even Seawright, the DCCC adviser, acknowledged that there are circumstances outside of Democrats’ control and that the party needs “to be able to respond” to the unexpected, especially in the final months before the general elections. 

Still, there are signs that Democrats’ recent burst of momentum isn’t just limited to special elections. Over the past month, the party has regained a narrow lead on the generic ballot — a poll question asking voters which party they would rather see control the House — according to the data website FiveThirtyEight.

And on Wednesday, two election handicappers, the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, shifted the November election in New York’s 18th District, where Ryan will seek his first full term in Congress, in Democrats’ direction.

Even some Republicans concede that the political environment appears to be improving for Democrats.

“The Dems have had a pretty good run lately,” one GOP strategist familiar with House races said. “It’s getting harder to say that it’s just a fluke. Do I think that they’re going to win the House? No, not at all. But also, what’s happening now doesn’t exactly say ‘red wave’ to me.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Five weirdest things exposed by drying lakes and rivers

Falling water levels in lakes and rivers across the globe have caused great concern among climate experts, and they have also led people to stumble upon a range of newly uncovered relics, from sunken ships to human remains.

Nearly half of Europe is facing drought warnings, while dry conditions in the American West, the worst in more than 1,000 years, led to water allocation cutbacks last week for states along the Colorado River.

A European Union-commissioned report from the Global Drought Observatory released this month found that 47 percent of Europe is in drought warning conditions, and 17 percent of the region meets the threshold for alert conditions.

As policymakers bring new urgency to addressing droughts in the U.S. and across the globe, here are five of the weirdest things exposed by lakes and rivers that are drying up:

Nazi warships

The drought has brought the Danube River, the second-longest in Europe, to some of the lowest water levels seen in nearly a century.

The levels have threatened shipping, especially in the Serbian section of the river, where officials have begun dredging to keep vessels moving through the waterway.

Near the port town of Prahovo, locals have found the hulks of dozens of Nazi warships, raising concerns about potential unexploded ammunition still aboard, Reuters reported last week.

“The German flotilla has left behind a big ecological disaster that threatens us, people of Prahovo,” local resident Velimir Trajilovic told Reuters.

The outlet reported the vessels were once operated by Nazi Germany’s fleet in the Black Sea and passed through the Danube River as they were retreating from Soviet forces.

Dinosaur tracks

At Texas’s Dinosaur Valley State Park, 113 million-year-old dinosaur tracks are preserved in the riverbed. They are typically covered by water and sediment, hindering their visibility.

But recent dry conditions this summer have lowered water levels at the park, located near Fort Worth, leading visitors last week to see the ancient tracks more exposed than ever. 

Recent rains have since improved conditions, but the park wrote on its Facebook page it was not enough to fill the Paluxy River, which runs through the park.

Jeff Davis, the state park’s superintendent, said that employees who have worked at the site for upward of 10 years have never seen the tracks so clearly.

“You won’t find them anywhere in the world,” Davis told Nexstar Media, The Hill’s parent company. “You can actually see their individual toes, their individual claw marks. You can even see where they slipped as they were running.”

Hunger stones

The Guardian reported late last week that low water levels in the Czech Republic section of the Elbe River have revealed a sharp warning inscribed in German centuries ago: “Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine.” 

The phrase translates to “If you see me, then weep.”

The inscription was written as a famine warning to future generations. This particular hunger stone was found near the town of Děčín, located in the northern region of the Czech Republic close to the country’s border with Germany.

The recent drought isn’t the first time such inscriptions have been visible in recent years. NPR reported a hunger stone was visible in Děčín in 2018 during a separate drought and heat wave, and many additional hunger stones exist throughout the region.

‘Spanish Stonehenge‘

Many are familiar with Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, but the recent drought has once again revealed the “Spanish Stonehenge” in the Valdecanas reservoir, located in western Spain.

Reuters reported the prehistoric stone circle is now visible for the fourth time since the area was flooded in 1963 as part of a rural development project. The arrangement is officially called the Dolmen of Guadalperal and is believed to have been created close to 5,000 BC.

“It’s a surprise, it’s a rare opportunity to be able to access it,” archaeologist Enrique Cedillo told Reuters.

Unexploded bomb

The BBC reported that a group of fishermen found an unexploded bomb from World War II on the banks of the Po in Italy last month.

Italian military officials said the bomb, which weighed roughly 1,000 pounds, contained 530 pounds of explosives, BBC reported.

The object was found near Borgo Virgilio, located in the Lombardy province in the northern region of Italy.

Italy’s executive branch last month declared a state of emergency for five provinces until the end of the year in response to the drought and low water levels in the Po and the Eastern Alps. The move provided 36.5 million euros to the affected areas.

“For the Po basin, this is the most serious water crisis of the last seventy years, according to analysis by the Po River District Basin Authority,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said at a press conference in late June.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden sells his student loan forgiveness plan, calls it economically responsible

President Biden on Wednesday attempted to sell his student loan forgiveness plan and pushed back on criticism over the policy, arguing its economically responsible and will be paid for.

“I believe my plan is responsible and fair. It focuses the benefit on middle class and working families. It helps both current and future borrowers and it will fix a badly broken system,” Biden said in remarks.

Biden unveiled a plan earlier on Wednesday to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 annually and $20,000 in loans for Pell Grant recipients within the same income bracket.

The president will also extend a payment freeze on federal student loans and interest accrual until Dec. 31 and stressed that January will finally mark the end of the years-long student loan payment freeze.

“By resuming student loan payments at the same time as we provide targeted relief, we’re taking an economically responsible course. As a consequence, about $50 billion year will start coming back into the treasury because the resumption of debt,” Biden said.

He acknowledged that critics will argue it is too much, which largely comes from Republicans and moderate Democrats, or too little, which largely comes from progressives and activists. 

“There’s plenty of deficit reduction to pay for the programs many times over,” Biden said, arguing his administration has cut the deficit enough to pay for the policies.

The White House on Wednesday said that if borrowers have undergraduate loans, they can cap repayment at 5 percent of their monthly income. Current students with loans are also eligible for this debt relief, and dependent students will be eligible for relief based on their parents’ income.

When asked if the newly unveiled plan is unfair to people who have paid back their student loans, Biden shot back and asked, “Is it fair to people who in fact do not own multi-billion dollar businesses to see one of these guys get the tax breaks? Is that fair? What do you think?” 

Earlier in his remarks, Biden had bashed Republicans for being critical of forgiving student loan debt, but for voting for Trump-era tax cuts. 

“I will never apologize for helping working Americans in the middle class, especially not to the same folks who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut that mainly benefited the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations, that slowed economy, didn’t do a whole lot for economic growth,” he said.

“I find it interesting how some of my Republican friends who voted for those tax cuts and others think that we shouldn’t be helping these folks,” he added, referring to borrowers.

Republicans have strongly come out against proposals for student debt relief and denounced them as unfair and inflationary. 

Biden compared his plan to the $700 billion in small business loans given out during the pandemic, arguing that there weren’t complaints at the time that those loans caused inflation.

“No one complained that those loans caused inflation. A lot of these folks in small business are working and middle-class families. They needed help. It was the right thing to do. So, the outrage over helping working people with student loans I think is just simply wrong. Dead wrong,” he said.

Ninety percent of eligible beneficiaries of the plan make under $75,000 per family income, over 60 percent are Pell Grant recipients, and 45 percent will have their debt fully canceled, according to data from the president. He also noted that it will help Black and Hispanic borrowers who are disproportionately impacted by student loans.

“No high-income individual or high-income household…will benefit from this action. Period,” he said, adding that he is honoring a commitment made during the campaign to forgive $10,000 in outstanding loans.

During the 2020 campaign, Biden supported forgiving at least $10,000 in federal student loans per person but progressives and fellow Democrats have long pushed him to support forgiving up to $50,000 in loans.

The Department of Education also announced on Wednesday it is making changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which allows borrowers working in public service to make progress towards their loans. It will retroactively credit public service, allow more payments to qualify for the program, and allow various deferments and forbearances, such as for those in the Peace Corps.

Biden said the program has driven him crazy because it needs to be fixed, calling it “a mess,” and “inefficient and complicated.”

Additionally, the department will propose a rule to hold career programs accountable through measures such as publishing an annual “watch list” for those with the worst debt levels.

Biden hailed the plan for holding colleges accountable for jacking up their costs, while also criticizing former President Trump. Biden had announced in June that he would cancel billions in student debt for former Corinthian College students and earlier this month announced he would discharge billions in student debt for ITT Tech borrowers.

“We’ve all heard of those schools luring students with a promise of big paychecks when they graduate, only to watch these students being ripped off and left with mounds of debt,” Biden said. “My predecessor looked the other way for some reason … to do anything about this fraud. My administration’s taking it on.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Student debt forgiveness is finally here

Everything about student debt is big. There are more than 40 million borrowers and they owe an astronomical $1.6 trillion. By comparison, the major increase in military aid to Ukraine announced this week will cost only $3 billion. 

President Biden’s announcement today forgives $10,000 for millions of borrowers and up to $20,000 for recipients of the Federal Pell Grant program, which provides grants to students who have demonstrated significant financial need. Before the different rates for Pell Recipients was added to the equation, this plan was estimated to cost about $300 billion.

The Biden administration deserves much credit for targeting debt forgiveness for the neediest students. This is an important step to help those struggling the most with student debt — those in default, 60 percent of whom owe less than $10,000.

But our government is on the hook for the student loans forgiven today because it borrowed the money and lent it to the students — and we haven’t done enough to fix the problem for future students.

We need to find a better way.

One way we can protect borrowers is to address the crippling role interest plays in their debt burden. Due to negative amortization, interest payments are taking up a larger portion of student loan payments than ever before — with nearly one-quarter of all payments made in 2019 going to interest. Interest payments alone skyrocketed from $13.1 billion in 2015 to $22.4 billion in 2019.

Biden and his team rightfully acknowledge this problem by proposing changes to the Income-Based Repayment loan plans. But these changes are going to be very costly — with the taxpayers shouldering the cost. One solution to ease the debt burden is to stop collecting interest altogether — with a cost offset mechanism embedded to protect taxpayers.

To offset the loss of interest payments, we should invest the principal payments students make. It could amount to a lot more than what the government collects in the interest students pay now.

While the plan from the White House takes steps to address the impact of negative amortization, it does not include a cost offset. If we don’t figure out a way to make the student loan system pay for itself, it may collapse and take down with it the hopes of millions of students to earn a college degree.

There is no doubt that the debt burden on low-income students has grown too large as evidenced by defaults and late payments. Today’s forgiveness is an important step, but we can do even better.

Robert Hildreth is a former International Monetary Fund economist whose professional work involved restructuring South American debt and marketing sovereign debt loans. He founded the Hildreth Institute dedicated to restoring the promise of higher education.

Source: TEST FEED1

Most Americans support student loan forgiveness, poll finds

Recent polling suggests the majority of American voters may be in favor of the Biden administration’s decision to forgive billions of dollars of student loan debt for low to middle-income borrowers. 

President Biden on Wednesday announced his administration is forgiving up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 annually and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The unprecedented decision will provide some financial relief to tens of millions of borrowers while about 15 million borrowers could see their entire balances eliminated. 

A recent national poll conducted by progressive think tank Data for Progress just before Biden’s announcement found 60 percent of 1,425 respondents agreed the federal government should eliminate all or some student loan debt for every borrower, compared to 34 percent who said the government should not forgive the loans and 6 percent who said they didn’t know. The poll was conducted August 19-21 online and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

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Along party lines, 81 percent of Democrats were in favor of canceling at least some student loan debt compared to 45 percent of Republicans who said the same. The poll found more than half of past student loan borrowers and voters who never borrowed student loans believed some or all student debt should be eliminated. 

The Biden administration is also extending the pandemic-related pause on student loan payments that was scheduled to expire at the end of August. The federal moratorium will be extended for a sixth and final time. Payments will resume January 2023 after more than two years. 

When asked about the pause, 63 percent of respondents said they supported it compared to 32 percent who were opposed. Of those who never took out student loans, 58 percent supported the moratorium while 35 percent opposed. 

Previous polling, however, showed a much narrower majority of Americans support the Biden administration’s plans. An NPR-Ipsos poll in June of 1,022 Americans found 55 percent of Americans support up to $10,000 of relief per borrower, but support dropped as financial relief increased. A YouGov poll and a Morning Consult-Politico poll found 51 percent of respondents were in favor of $10,000 in forgiveness. 

A CNBC poll released this week also found 59 percent of Americans worried forgiving student loan debt could make inflation worse. 

Source: TEST FEED1