1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i The Biden Administration Extends the Pause on Federal Student Loan Payments: Legal Considerations for Congress January 27, 2021 Last year, both the Trump Administration and the 116th Congress granted temp
2、orary relief to certain student loan borrowers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the first day of his presidency, President Joe Biden requested that the Department of Education (ED) extend the duration of this relief. This Legal Sidebar analyzes the asserted statutory bases for these relief m
3、easures and identifies pertinent legal considerations for Congress. (A separate CRS product discusses this issue from a policy perspective.) The Statutory Framework Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) establishes several federal student loan programs to help borrowers finance a postsecondary
4、education. ED “holds”that is, owns and collects payments onmost of the outstanding loans made under those programs. The Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act of 2003 authorizes the Secretary of Education (Secretary) to “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision