Are We One Step Closer To Student Loan Forgiveness In New York?

This dreadful Pandemic has drastically changed various aspects of everyday life. People now interact with others differently, traditional norms have been throw out the window and more and more people are at odds. The Pandemic has also turned literally everything political.

Some argue that certain people are using restrictions, former lock downs and financial hardships brought on by COVID-19 to institute preferred policies or push political agendas. One example is the ongoing discussion over eviction moratoriums. The CDC issued the updated moratorium on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021 preventing landlords from removing their tenants in "areas of substantial and high transmission." Dr. Rochelle Walensky of the CDC says,

Evictions of tenants for failure to make rent or housing payments could be detrimental to public health control measures to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Some argue that these moratoriums could inspire legislation or a push towards making similar policies permanent. Getting back to the Student Loan issue.

Some politicians and policy makers have been pushing for federal student loan forgiveness for several years. The most recent extension of paused payments is set to be the FINAL extension and will expire on January 31st, 2021, according to studentaid.gov. The extension was explained as follows,

The pause includes the following relief measures for eligible loans:

• a suspension of loan payments
• a 0% interest rate
• stopped collections on defaulted loans

As explained in a Forbes article, this has sparked discussion on Capitol Hill. On August 3rd, the Senate Judiciary Committee discussed the topic of Student Loan debt. The Forbes article states,

In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today, senators discussed a new, bipartisan student loan bill that would make it easier for more student loan borrowers to get student loan cancellation in bankruptcy. However, the early focus of the hearing turned toward wide-scale student loan forgiveness.

While this discussion may not have been taken as seriously before the Pandemic, people are certainly talking about it now. People in Government. The debate will rage on between those who believe it's unfair to those who have paid back their student loans already or believe it will lead to higher costs for taxpayers and those who feel it is a necessary clean slate for those struggling to earn wages to pay the loans back. It is likely that New York would be one of the states eager to show support for some form of legislation to be written and passed. For now, no federal student loan payments are due until 2022.