The Biden administration will extend the student loan payment moratorium through August 31, according to reports.
Payments are currently slated to restart after May 1, but pushing the deadline back again will allow debtors to avoid paying off their loans for several extra months.
While the Biden administration has kept the moratorium alive by making extensions, Republican President Donald Trump previously extended the moratorium during his time in office as well.
GOP Sen. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina issued a blistering statement rebuking Biden over the reported plans to prolong the loan repayment moratorium again.
“Taxpayers have been footing the student loan bill for graduate students and Ivy League lawyers to the tune of $5 billion every month while their wallets are being drained by skyrocketing inflation. The arrogance of this administration is astonishing, and the disrespect to our democratic system and the oath of office President Biden took to the American people, over half of which do not benefit from holding a college degree, is outright despicable,” Foxx said in the statement.
Many Democrats were pleased by the news, but continued calling upon the administration to cancel student debt.
“Welcome news. Now #CancelStudentDebt,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts tweeted.
In a March 31 a letter to President Joe Biden, a group of lawmakers had called for extending the moratorium until the end of the year and for cancelling student debt.
“We are writing to urge you to act now to extend the pause on federally-held student loan payments until at least the end of the year and to provide meaningful student debt cancellation,” the letter said. “Although there may be different ideas about the best way to structure cancellation, we all agree that you should cancel student debt now.”