The Biden administration is ignoring Republican calls for federal student loan system reform. The student loan program is broken, but extending the inflationary repayment pause or providing mass student loan cancelation and forcing taxpayers to foot the bill is not the answer. Rather, it will exacerbate the vicious cycle of colleges charging higher tuition prices and students borrowing more and more.
In contrast, Republicans have offered the President and the American people actual solutions that address the root causes of the student loan crisis instead of fanning the flames like President Biden’s haphazard cancelation scheme. The Responsible Education Assistance through Loan (REAL) Reforms Act,introduced by Representatives Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and Jim Banks (R-IN), fixes the failures of the federal student loan program for the borrowers of today and those tomorrow.
This bill would provide targeted relief to borrowers who faithfully made payments but were harmed by exploding interest costs and gives a second chance for borrowers who have faced the challenges and consequences of default. It also expands opportunities to the middle class outside of the traditional baccalaureate model by opening new educational pathways for Americans to learn valuable skills and move up the economic ladder.
We must address the ways students fall so deeply in debt in the first place, instead of slapping a band aid on the problem after the fact. That’s why the REAL Reforms Act prevents students from taking on unaffordable debt for degrees with little value, and reins in runaway loan forgiveness programs costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars every year.
Our bill is the commonsense approach to fixing student loan debt. Ultimately, the Republican bill offers fiscally responsible solutions to the problems engineered by Democrats.
