Cardona: Student loan repayment pause will end "no later than June 30"
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona at a discussion on September 20, 2022 in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Photo: Colin Myers/Claflin University/HBCU via Getty Images
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that the current pause on student loan repayments will end "no later than June 30."
Driving the news: "The emergency period is over and we're preparing our borrowers to restart," Cardona said Thursday at a Senate appropriations committee hearing.
- The current pause on student loan repayments, announced in November, is set to end 60 days after June 30, or 60 days after the Supreme Court issues its long-awaited ruling on debt relief.
The big picture: The Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan currently remains in legal limbo, but the Supreme Court during oral arguments in February appeared inclined to kill the sweeping plan.
- Cardona said Thursday that he is confident in his plan before the Supreme Court and that he is working to make sure borrowers have a "smooth reentry to repayment."
- "We recognize that during the pandemic that it was very difficult for borrowers," Cardona said.
- "And we are committed to making sure that once the decision is made, that we're going to resume payments 60 days after, but no later than June 30 we're going to begin that process."
Zoom out: Biden's sweeping debt relief plan would cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for individual borrowers who make under $125,000 per year.
- "We recognize that our borrowers need information and they need a long on-ramp because it has been three years of resuming payments," Cardona said.
Go deeper... What to know about student loan forgiveness for public service workers