With Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness in limbo, lawmakers consider colleges’ role – By Alia Wong (USA Today) / Mar 23 2023
Amid a clash Thursday over President Joe Biden’s beleaguered student loan forgiveness plan, one theme emerged that at least some members of Congress could agree upon: Colleges need to take more responsibility for the debt crisis.
The House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, chaired by Republican Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah, held a hearing aimed at examining the implications of Biden’s student loan proposals for students and taxpayers. One of those – broad relief of up to $20,000 in debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 – is held up in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The two-hour hearing, the subcommittee’s first meeting this session, consisted largely of the usual partisan talking points. Republicans decried the burdens debt forgiveness places on “hardworking Americans” and the prospect of creating a culture of overreliance on loans. Democrats lamented the declining value of a Pell Grant amid skyrocketing tuition and the disproportionate rates of low-income Americans who have struggled to complete their degrees but are stuck with ever-mounting debt they can’t afford.
They agreed on little, even failing to see eye-to-eye on whether the pandemic qualified as an emergency.
