Many White House staffers will likely be eligible for President Biden's newly unveiled student-loan "forgiveness" plan, which will transfer up to $10,000 in student debt from individuals making less than $125,000 to the American public.
A White House report that detailed the pay of more than 470 staffers last month showed that roughly half of current White House employees make $90,000 or less per year, with the other half making more than $100,000. More than 300 staffers on the list earn less than the $125,000 threshold.
It is not clear how many White House staffers have student-loan balances. One-in-five White House aides required to file a 2021 financial disclosure reported having student loans, according to disclosures reviewed by Bloomberg News. However, only senior or well-paid staffers have to file the disclosures, the report notes.
At least 30 senior White House staffers have student-loan balances, according to the report. However, the staffers mentioned by name in the report — press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and deputy director of the National Economic Council Bharat Ramamurti — make a yearly salary that exceeds the $125,000 cut off.
The 30 senior staffers collectively owe as much as $4.7 million, according to the report.
Washington, D.C., residents have more outstanding student-loan debt than residents of any other city in the country, according to a 2021 report from the business insurance research company AdvisorSmith, which found that the average D.C. borrower has $54,982 in unpaid student-loan debt and 16 percent of D.C. residents had unpaid student-loan debt.
Biden plans to “forgive” up to $10,000 in federal student debt for those making under $125,000 annually and households making under $250,000, as well as relieving $20,000 in debt for Pell grant recipients. The executive action transfers the cost of the loans to the American public.
Biden’s order is expected to cost $300 billion, according to an estimate by the Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania.
The president also announced Wednesday that he will extend the federal student loan freeze until December 31.
Two Republican members of Congress, Representatives Virginia Foxx of North Carolina and James Comer of Kentucky, wrote a letter to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics last year suggesting that staffers working on the loan forgiveness plan should be investigated to see if they or their family members would benefit personally from loan cancellation.
"Public officials should never use their office to unjustly enrich themselves, and such behavior would directly violate the Ethics Pledge that President Biden implemented for all political appointees," the lawmakers wrote.
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