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More student loan forgiveness available, but April 30 deadline looms

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More student loan forgiveness available, but April 30 deadline looms

Californians who obtained federally backed student loans from private banks can have some or all of their remaining debt forgiven by the Biden administration, but they need to act fast: The deadline for qualifying is Tuesday.

The relief is available for students enrolled in income-driven repayment plans or the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. It’s also available for some parents who borrowed through the Federal Family Education Loan program.

This is not a new initiative, however — instead, it’s the last chance to participate in one of the administration’s first and most successful efforts to reduce the mountain of student debt.

The Education Department launched the Income Driven Repayment One-Time Adjustment initiative in 2022 to address complaints about loan servicing companies losing track of payments, not giving borrowers proper credit for their work in public-service jobs, and steering struggling borrowers into costly forbearance or deferment programs instead of payment plans based on their income.

After completing its review of payment records last year, the department granted all or partial forgiveness automatically to the borrowers who qualified — no application was required. The Education Department estimated that 3.6 million borrowers would receive credit for at least three additional years of payments, moving them that much closer to having their remaining debt wiped out.

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Under income-driven repayment plans, borrowers pay a monthly amount that’s a percentage of their income, regardless of the size of their debt. Those who stay current on their payments have all the remaining debt canceled after 10 years if they’re in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program; otherwise, those in income-based plans would have their debt canceled after 20 to 25 years of payments.

The recalculation applied only to loans issued directly by the federal government, however. That left out borrowers with federally backed loans issued by banks through the Perkins Loan, Federal Family Education Loan and Health Education Assistance Loan programs.

Those borrowers have one last chance to qualify. for a one-time adjustment. If they combine their federally backed loans into a federal direct consolidation loan before Wednesday, their previous payments on those loans will automatically be eligible for review.

Borrowers can apply online to consolidate their loans at the studentaid.gov website. To meet the deadline, the application just has to be submitted by the end of the day Tuesday — the approval can come later, said Celina Damian, the student loan servicing ombudsperson for the California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation.

As part of the one-time adjustment, the Education Department gives borrowers credit for the entire period when repayments were paused because of the pandemic. That’s a little more than three years’ worth of credits.

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In addition, the department is giving credits for payments made under any other type of repayment plan that the borrower was in before opting for an income-based plan. And it credits borrowers for months they spent in deferment or in lengthy periods of forbearance.

Borrowers whose adjusted payment counts push them over the 20-year (for most undergraduate loans) or 25-year (for graduate loans) thresholds will automatically have their remaining debt forgiven.

Although the Supreme Court rejected President Biden’s bid to provide debt relief to roughly 40 million borrowers in 2023, the administration has two other major efforts available or in the works. It has proposed a set of rules that would shrink the debt owed by about 30 million borrowers, and it has rolled out a new income-based repayment plan that has lower monthly payments and accrues less interest.

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Video: Biden Says Israeli Military Assault in Gaza Is ‘Not Genocide’

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Video: Biden Says Israeli Military Assault in Gaza Is ‘Not Genocide’

new video loaded: Biden Says Israeli Military Assault in Gaza Is ‘Not Genocide’

transcript

transcript

Biden Says Israeli Military Assault in Gaza Is ‘Not Genocide’

At a celebration of Jewish Heritage Month, President Biden pledged support to Israel and condemned a decision by the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court to seek arrest warrants for top Israeli officials.

We stand with Israel to take out Sinwar and the rest of the butchers of Hamas. We want Hamas defeated. We’ll work with Israel to make that happen. And consistent with Jewish values and compassion, kindness and dignity and human life, my team also is providing critical humanitarian assistance to help innocent Palestinian civilians who are suffering greatly because of the war Hamas, Hamas has unleashed. [clapping] Its heartbreaking. Let me be clear. We reject the I.C.C.’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. [cheering] Whatever these warrants may imply, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas, and it’s clear Israel wants to do all it can to ensure civilian protection. But let me be clear. Contrary to allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice, what’s happening is not genocide. We reject that. [cheering]

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Recent episodes in Israel-Hamas War

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2024 showdown: Trump tops Biden in April campaign cash dash

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2024 showdown: Trump tops Biden in April campaign cash dash

With five and a half months to go until the November election, former President Donald Trump enjoys the edge over President Biden in many national polls and surveys in the key battleground states that will likely decide their 2024 rematch.

And in April, for the first time, Trump also enjoyed the lead in monthly fundraising.

The president’s campaign announced on Monday evening that they and the Democratic National Committee hauled in over $51 million in fundraising last month. 

That’s significantly less than the $76 million that the former president and the Republican National Committee raised in April, according to an announcement earlier this month.

THE BLUE STATES TRUMP AIMS TO FLIP RED IN HIS 2024 REMATCH WITH BIDEN

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Former President Donald Trump is joined by top GOP officials, allies, and potential 2024 running mates, as he speaks at a Republican National Committee donor retreat, on May 4, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida (2024 Donald Trump campaign )

“@TeamTrump and the RNC outraised Biden by $25 MILLION in April!” the RNC touted in a social media post.

The fundraising totals are a switch from March, when Biden and the DNC brought in roughly $90 million compared to $65.6 million for Trump and the RNC.

Biden had regularly been outpacing Trump in monthly fundraising, but Trump’s April haul was boosted by a record-setting $50.5 million that the former president’s campaign raked in at a single event early in the month with top dollar GOP donors that was hosted at the Palm Beach, Florida home of billionaire investor John Paulson.

WARNING SIGNS FOR TRUMP AND BIDEN AS THEY CAREEN TOWARDS FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

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The Biden campaign, in their announcement, spotlighted that they have hauled in $473 million in the year since the president formally launched his re-election bid. 

They also showcased that they were sitting on a massive $192 million war chest as of the end of April.

They touted that Trump “trails badly in cash on hand” and that they have “the highest total of any Democratic candidate in history at this point in the cycle.”

Biden, Obama and Clinton.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and President Joe Biden. (Getty Images)

The Biden campaign also spotlighted their small dollar donations, saying that “a majority of April’s raise came from grassroots donors, and one million more supporters were added to our email list in the month alone.”

They also took aim at Trump, arguing that his campaign “has focused nearly entirely on courting billionaire donors, maxing out early in the cycle instead of building a durable grassroots fundraising program.”

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In their announcement earlier this month, Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles pointed to their grassroots fundraising prowess, saying that “with half of funds raised coming from small dollar donors, it is clear that our base is energized.”

And they pledged that “we are raising the resources necessary to deliver a victory in November.”

Trump and Biden

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon / Curtis Means/DailyMail.com via AP, Pool)

But the Biden campaign said that its fundraising advantage in recent months has allowed it to go up with major ad buys in the key states and to build formidable ground game teams in the battlegrounds.

Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said their fundraising “is giving us the resources necessary to invest in opening offices, hiring organizers and communicating across our battleground states in order to mobilize the coalition of voters who will decide this election.”

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Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

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California Assembly passes bill allowing Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes

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California Assembly passes bill allowing Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes

A bill that would allow Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes in California passed the state Assembly Monday afternoon on a 49-4 vote and is headed to the Senate. But even if the Legislature’s upper chamber approves AB 1775, legalization remains far from a sure thing.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a prior iteration of the bill in October, citing the state’s long-standing smoke-free workplace protections.

The bill would authorize local jurisdictions to allow licensed cannabis retailers to prepare and sell non-cannabis food and nonalcoholic beverages. The bill would also allow the cafes to host live music and other performances.

Under current state law, consumers can consume cannabis at a dispensary, but dispensaries can’t legally sell non-cannabis products like coffee and food, as is legal in Amsterdam.

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California’s symbolic position at the apex of weed culture has long been rivaled by the Dutch capital, where cannabis cafes have been legal since the 1970s.

Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), who introduced the legislation, has framed it as a matter of fairness. He argues that the cafes would level the playing field for the state’s highly taxed and regulated legal weed industry, allowing legitimate businesses to compete with black-market sellers who don’t operate under the same constraints.

“This is a bill that supports our legal small businesses that just want to diversify their businesses and do the right thing,” Haney said Monday on the Assembly floor. “The illicit illegal market is continuing to grow and thrive, while our legal cannabis market is struggling.”

Haney cited the governor’s prior veto, saying he had been working to address Newsom’s concerns through amendments to the bill. The new version would prohibit cannabis smoking or vaping in “back of house” of lounges, where food is being prepared or stored, creating separation between where people are consuming cannabis and other work areas.

Rather than taking a blunt statewide approach, the bill would put the decision to allow cannabis cafes in the hands of local jurisdictions. Should a jurisdiction decide to greenlight the lounges, it would have to hash out its own permitting process and regulations.

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West Hollywood put a licensing system in place several years ago, and a handful of cannabis lounges operate within the city’s 1.89 square miles. The West Hollywood businesses operate with workarounds that separate the food businesses, The Times has previously reported.

No such licensing system exists in the city of Los Angeles.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Assn. and the American Lung Assn. have all opposed the bill, raising concerns about the health effects of secondhand marijuana smoke. They argue that the bill would undo hard-fought workplace protections “by re-creating the harmful work environments of the past.”

Marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access has argued that patrons and employees would face no health risks because of the highly regulated nature of such establishments.

A Newsom spokesperson declined to comment on pending legislation.

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Staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.

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