Kilili: Many in the NMI have benefitted from student loan forgiveness policies

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP has come to the defense of the repayment pause and forgiveness policies of U.S. President Joseph Biden, saying individuals in the Marianas with student loan debt have benefitted from it.

In his e-kilili newsletter over the weekend, Sablan said these policies are now being challenged by Attorneys General affiliated with the Republican Party all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Six-Republican-led states have filed a lawsuit against Biden’s forgiveness policies, accusing the President of overstepping his authority. Sablan said Republicans in Congress piled on with a hearing Wednesday to criticize those policies.

Sablan, however, spoke in favor with the Biden policies during the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Workforce’s Higher Education and Workforce Subcommittee hearing, called “Examining the Implications of Biden’s Student Loan Policies for Students and Taxpayers.”

The delegate shared the experience of a constituent from the CNMI, whose life, according to him, is a little easier because of such Biden’s policies.

Sablan said as a member of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee, he will continue to support federal policies that make higher education an affordable reality for all Americans.

On July 28, 2022, Sablan and several of other U.S. lawmakers wrote Biden and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cordona, urging them to pause student loan payments, given the numerous economic issues facing borrowers across the nation, as well as administrative actions in process by the department.

The lawmakers noted that on Sept. 1, 2022, tens of millions of federal student loan borrowers are scheduled to resume payments.

Sablan and his colleagues said that resuming student loan payments would force millions of borrowers to choose between paying their federal student loans or putting a roof over their heads, food on the table, or paying for childcare and healthcare—while costs continue to rise and yet another COVID-19 variant increases hospitalizations nationwide.

Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the U.S. Department of Education announced in 2022 a three-part plan, including the loan forgiveness of up to $20,000, to help working and middle-class federal student loan borrowers transition back to regular payment as pandemic-related support expires.