Even presidential aides owe student loan debt -- totaling at least $4.7 million
About one in five White House aides required to file a disclosure reported student loans, and more than half are people of color.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden’s decision on whether to forgive student debt will be personal for many of his aides, who are among the millions of Americans carrying loans for college and graduate school.
At least 30 senior White House staffers have student loan balances, according to 2021 financial disclosures Bloomberg News obtained from the Office of Government Ethics, including Biden’s new press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, and Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council.
About one in five White House aides required to file a disclosure reported student loans, and more than half are people of color.
Collectively, they owe as much as $4.7 million, the documents show, including one legislative aide who reported owing between $500,000 and $1 million. Generally, only senior or well-paid White House staff have to file financial disclosures, and they don’t have to report debt less than $10,000, meaning the total number of Biden’s aides with loan balances is certainly higher.
Biden has agonized for months over whether to cancel some student debt through executive action, instead of waiting for a gridlocked Congress to pass a law forgiving loans. In the meantime, he’s repeatedly extended a freeze on payments and interest, meaning most Americans with student debt haven’t had to worry about making payments since he’s been in office.
The White House made 2021 financial disclosures for 133 of its employees available late Friday; some current and former staff haven’t yet filed. The documents show that the White House is not unlike any other US workplace with young, college-educated staff: many know first-hand the weight of student loan debt. And as is true across the country, the burden falls disproportionately on communities of color.
In all, the 30 staffers who disclosed student debt hold a total of 50 loans with a combined value of between $2 million and $4.7 million. Just over half are people of color, underscoring the equity element to Biden’s decision.
About 43 million people in the US hold federal student loans, including 15 million who owe $10,000 or less — a threshold Biden is considering for relief. Black college graduates owe more on average than White grads. The NAACP has urged Biden to cancel a far greater amount of loans.
“Anything as low as $10,000 in cancellation would be a slap in the face,” the NAACP’s national director of youth and college, Wisdom Cole, said in a statement this month. “Well-off, predominantly White doctors and lawyers may benefit from $10,000 in cancellation, but that won’t do much to reduce the racial wealth gap.”
Officials report a range of values for their assets and liabilities in the disclosures, leaving precise totals unclear. An employee in the White House congressional liaison office reported the most student debt of any White House aide — between $500,000 and $1 million. Another reported four student loans, cumulatively totaling between $450,000 and $950,000.
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