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The
extension of the pause, which had been due to expire on Sept.
30, comes as cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus
continue to surge around the United States.
The Department of Education "believes this additional time and a
definitive end date will allow borrowers to plan for the
resumption of payments and reduce the risk of delinquency and
defaults after restart," a White House statement said.
The department, the statement said, will begin notifying
borrowers about the final extension in the coming days and
"release resources and information about how to plan for payment
restart as the end of the pause approaches."
"It is the department's priority to support students and
borrowers during this transition and ensure they have the
resources they need to access affordable, high-quality higher
education," the statement quoted Education Secretary Miguel
Cardona as saying.
In a separate statement, Biden said the pause extension is
needed because the "road will still be long" for many borrowers
despite Friday's jobs report showing July's unemployment rate at
a 16-month low of 5.4 percent.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and two fellow Democratic
lawmakers hailed the extension, but said the measure did not go
far enough.
"Our broken student loan system continues to exacerbate racial
wealth gaps and hold back our entire economy," he said in a
statement with Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative
Ayanna Pressley. "We continue to call on the administration to
use its existing executive authority to cancel $50,000 of
student debt (per borrower)."
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay, Timothy Ahman and Mohammad
Zargham; Editing by Leslie Adler, Sonya Hepinstall and Sandra
Maler)
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