New Jersey Citizen Action applauds Senator Booker for standing with student loan borrowers against Trump administration during pandemic

Newark  – New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA) today applauded U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-7th) for leading more than 30 of their congressional colleagues yesterday in reprimanding the Trump Administration for continuing to garnish the wages of millions of struggling student loan borrowers, despite an explicit provision in the CARES Act prohibiting this during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

“It is unconscionable that the Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin would allow their agents in the servicing industry to forcibly take money from people while they can barely pay their basic living expenses, let alone make massive student loan payments,” said NJCA Financial Justice Organizer Beverly Brown Ruggia. “We commend Senator Booker for standing up to an industry and to government officials ignoring an Act of Congress that protects millions of Americans who have lost jobs and income because of an unprecedented and catastrophic worldwide pandemic. Now is not the time to demand that the 1.143 million student loan borrowers in New Jersey pay down their debt, which currently totals $47.9 billion and averages $41, 889 per borrower. It is unfair, abusive and in this case unlawful to do so.”

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New Jersey Citizen Action is a statewide advocacy and social service organization that fights for social, racial and economic justice for all while also meeting the pressing needs of low and moderate income New Jerseyans through education and direct service.