The White House is starting to publicly indicate that it is open to extending the current pause on federal student loan repayments.
The White House is starting to publicly indicate that it is open to extending the current pause on federal student loan repayments. Until this week the Biden administration had been indicating there would be no further extensions to the payment pause. That has changed with Ronald Klain, the White House Chief of Staff, going on the record to say the Biden administration is considering extending the pause on student loan repayment. The current extension will end on May 2. During an interview on Pod Save America, Klain said that “The president is going to look at what we should do on student debt before the pause expires, or he’ll extend the pause.” This comment is the strongest signal from the administration that the pause will be extended again. Another extension may also be under consideration because the Department of Education (ED) is still working to resolve the significant logistical challenge of bringing millions of borrowers back into repayment. In addition to the logistical challenges of restarting student loan payments, another payment pause may be an admission that turning student loan payments back on is politically dicey for the administration in the run-up to the mid-term elections.
