White House extension of student loan repayment pause gets lukewarm reaction

The Biden administration will extend the current pause on student loan repayments through the end of August, CNN reports Tuesday per an administration official familiar with the matter. The current repayment extension was scheduled to lapse on May 1.

While President Biden has been facing pressure from both politicians and outside groups to extend the pause once again — given ongoing inflation and supply chain issues — the reaction to Tuesday's date shift wasn't wholly positive, with critics chiming in from left and right alike.

"I think some folks read these extensions as savvy politics," responded Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), "but I don't think those folks understand the panic and disorder it causes people to get so close to these deadlines just to extend the uncertainty. ... We should cancel them."

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"With each and every repayment extension," Biden makes "a stronger case" for canceling student debt, added the NAACP, per HuffPost's Phil Lewis.

"If we can continue to indefinitely delay student loan payment and interest, we can just as easily cancel it," Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.) continued. "We cannot continue kicking the can down the road, leaving student borrowers with the uncertainty of when this will end."

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), however, issued a much more scalding take altogether.

The White House is expected to officially announce the extension on Wednesday, CNN reports. At this point, "borrower balances have effectively been frozen for more than two years."