President Biden Takes Action on a New York State Bar Association Legislative Priority — Student Loan Relief

President Biden Takes Action on a New York State Bar Association Legislative Priority — Student Loan Relief

8.24.2022

By Hilary Jochmans

Today, President Biden announced action on one of the New York State Bar Association’s federal legislative priorities — expanding and extending student loan relief for attorneys and non-attorneys.

The president’s plan will extend the pause on student loan payments through Dec. 31, 2022 and provide $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients. In order to be eligible for this relief, individual incomes must be less than $125,000 or $250,000 for households.  Additionally, borrowers who are employed by non-profits, the military, or federal, state, tribal, or local governments may be eligible to have all of their student loans forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

More than 40 million Americans, mostly people under 35 years of age, have student loan debt. Covid-19 has exacerbated the financial challenges these individuals face.  While Congress did provide relief during the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been widespread calls to take further action.  The New York State Bar Association has recommended that the moratorium be extended and expanded to private loans, in addition to providing targeted monetary relief in cases of economic hardship.  Today’s announcement goes a long way in advancing these goals.

More information on student loan forgiveness can be found at: StudentAid.gov/DebtRelief and PSLF.gov.  Additional information on the association’s federal priories can be found at: https://staging-api.nysba.org/app/uploads/2022/04/2022-Federal-Legislative-Priorities_web.pdf