Wyden, Democratic Colleagues Press Trump Administration Decision to Raise Student Loan Payments for Low-Income Americans
Letter to Department of Education follows reporting the administration plans to gut Biden-era Income-Driven Repayment plans
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today led 11 of his Democratic Senate colleagues in demanding answers from the Trump administration about its plans to deny 460,000 student loan borrowers that have applied for lower repayment plans.
"We write with grave concern regarding the Trump Administration’s decision to summarily reject 460,000 borrowers’ applications for more affordable monthly student loan payments under income-driven repayment,” the Senators wrote in their letter to Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “As working families already navigate rising costs and unprecedented economic uncertainty, your decision to recklessly deny these applications will leave hundreds of thousands of borrowers in the lurch and exacerbate the financial uncertainty that workers and families are experiencing today.”
In July, it was reported that the Trump administration planned to reject hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers’ applications for income-driven repayment (IDR), which caps monthly student loan payments based on income level. These plans allow students and families to cover household expenses and still make student loan payments. In addition to mass denying borrowers who applied for IDR, the Department has failed to opt borrowers in to other low payment options, leaving them in limbo and at risk for paying more interest.
Denying these applicants from income-driven repayment plans will mean hundreds of thousands of Americans being forced to make higher monthly payments on their student loans at a time when many households are already struggling to cover rent and groceries under the crippling cost of Trump’s tariffs and disastrous economic agenda.
U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Angus King, I-Maine, Tim Kaine, D-Va., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., joined Wyden in writing to Secretary McMahon.
The letter can be found here.
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