Ranking Member Cassidy, Chairwoman Foxx React to New Report Showing Less than Half of Student Loan Borrowers Are Making Payments

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, along with U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, issued statements on the new Government Accountability Office report showing that as of January of 2024, only 40 percent of student loan borrowers were making payments on their loans. The Biden-Harris administration has since taken action to place additional borrowers in forbearance, 8 million in July alone. This has decreased the number of borrowers making payments on the debt that the administration continues to shift onto hardworking taxpayers.  

To further disincentivize borrowers from paying off their loans after student loan payments resumed last August, the Biden-Harris Department of Education announced that borrowers will not be penalized or considered delinquent if they miss payments for up to a year. This ‘coincidentally’ pushes any consequences for not making payments to after the November election. Borrowers who choose not to pay will still be charged interest on their unpaid loans and may be unaware that interest is accruing. This policy violates the Fiscal Responsibility Act and misleads borrowers on what their responsibilities are to repay their loans.  

“The Biden-Harris administration is misleading these borrowers to win their vote while setting them up for failure. These borrowers are racking up interest with missed payments while waiting for the false promise of widespread debt ‘cancellation’ this administration has no legal authority to deliver,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Let’s be clear, the Biden-Harris administration is not canceling debt. They are trying to take the debt from those who willingly took it on and transfer it onto the 87 percent of Americans who chose to not go to college or already paid off their education.” 

“To quote the Andy Griffith Show, ‘surprise, surprise, surprise.’ The majority of borrowers don’t believe they need to pay back the loans they knowingly took on, and who can blame them after years of false hope and illegal schemes from the Biden-Harris administration? It’s past time for this administration to quit lying to the American public and focus on real solutions to deal with the cost of postsecondary education, like the College Cost Reduction Act that will hold institutions financially responsible for overpriced degrees that leave students with unaffordable debt,” said Chairwoman Foxx.

This report was requested by Cassidy and Foxx after the Biden-Harris administration has repeatedly failed to communicate to borrowers on how to transition to repayment. 

Click here for the full report. 

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