Two seemingly unlikely people are calling on Congress to tackle inflation. College debt It affects millions of Americans.
Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Ana Paulina Luna (R-FL) introduced legislation this week that would cap interest rates on federal student loans by 3%, and Luna told Fox News Digital that she is ready to lobby Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for a vote by the full House.
“I'm looking forward to actually having that conversation when I get back next week,” Luna said.
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Representatives Anna Paulina Luna and Jared Moskowitz are in serious bipartisan talks to pass legislation that would limit interest on federal student loans. (Getty Images)
She has called on Johnson to fast-track the bill through a procedure known as “suspending the rules,” which would allow the bill to bypass the normal committee process and instead raise the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds, a threshold that Luna and Moskowitz expected the bill would meet.
“I think if we put this bill before the House it would pass. In fact, if it doesn't go through committee, I think it would probably get a two-thirds majority. So I think it would pass overwhelmingly,” Moskowitz told Fox News Digital.
Luna echoed the sentiment, saying, “I think it would be very hard for any senator to vote against this.”
She also proposed creating an exemption petition for the bill, a measure that would force the bill to a vote if the petition received signatures from a majority of House members.
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While a removal petition in itself is unlikely to be successful in forcing a vote of the full House, just the petition being filed may be enough to pressure leadership to act, Luna said.
“I've talked to people who say, 'I'm paying off loans I took out 15, 20 years ago, and the interest rates are so high, I can barely afford to pay them off,'” Luna said. “Americans have become indentured servants.”
President Biden has tried multiple times to implement widespread student loan forgiveness. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Senator)
This comes after attempts by the Biden-Harris administration to implement large-scale student loan forgiveness continued to be blocked by Republican-led states and a conservative Supreme Court, but President Biden managed to implement more targeted forgiveness measures.
While Luna and Moskowitz disagree on Biden's reform proposals, they said they have heard people on both sides of the aisle express the need for student loan reform.
“To be honest, we were both working on this issue separately and then one day we were talking and we both brought it up,” Moskowitz said of how their collaboration on the issue began.
Kamala Harris has not held a formal press conference since emerging as the Democratic candidate.
“Everybody knows it's an issue. Let's start here, where there's common ground. People who can't afford an education can get a loan, but they won't be stuck in debt for the rest of their lives.”
They also dismissed concerns about giving each other a win in a highly partisan election year.
“I can't worry about that, because at the end of the day, if we're going to move forward for American families, I'm not interested in this credit nonsense,” Moskowitz said. “If I'm criticizing Republicans for trying to stop Joe Biden from winning, then how can I not be complicit in that act myself?”
Both lawmakers said college debt is a bipartisan issue. (Erika Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“In the end, our country will prevail,” Luna said.
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“I know this is an election year, but this is what I hope. [Democrats] “I'm going to look at this bill not as something that was written and passed by a Republican institution, but as something that will be a positive overall,” she said.
As of the end of 2023, roughly 43 million Americans will be carrying about $1.6 trillion in student loan debt nationwide, according to federal data.
About 95% of that debt comes from federal loans, and the average interest rate on federal student loans is 5.99%, according to the Education Data Initiative.
