{"id":22524,"date":"2025-06-26T12:16:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T16:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=22524"},"modified":"2025-07-10T14:30:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T18:30:06","slug":"senate-republicans-block-merkleys-bill-to-protect-and-strengthen-federal-student-loan-repayment-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/senate-republicans-block-merkleys-bill-to-protect-and-strengthen-federal-student-loan-repayment-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Republicans Block Merkley\u2019s Bill to Protect and Strengthen Federal Student Loan Repayment Options"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C. \u2013 Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley released\u00a0the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked consideration of his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-kaine-launch-effort-to-protect-and-strengthen-federal-student-loan-repayment-options\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Savings Opportunity and Affordable Repayment (SOAR) Act<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cAs the first in my family to go to college, I know the barriers that so many students face in accessing higher education. We should be doing all we can to make education more accessible, and income-driven repayment programs are an essential tool to address America\u2019s student debt crisis. Republicans, however, want to raze affordable repayment options for students, kick millions off of their health insurance, and make it harder for families to put food on the table\u2014all to fund tax giveaways for billionaires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is a stunning betrayal for people across this country, and rather than consider my bill to protect and expand federal student loan repayment programs, Republicans blocked it. As Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, I will fight like hell against any Republican attempts to prevent students from having a much-needed path to student debt relief, now and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley took to the Senate Floor in an attempt to pass his <em>SOAR Act<\/em>, legislation he leads with Virginia\u2019s U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, that would protect and expand federal student loan repayment programs. The <em>SOAR Act<\/em> creates a new income-driven repayment (IDR) plan\u2014which links payments to a borrower\u2019s income and family size\u2014to better protect borrowers from unaffordable payments, runaway balances due to rapidly accruing interest, and offer a clearer path to debt relief after at least a decade of payments. The <em>SOAR Act<\/em> codifies, expands, and strengthens the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan that President Biden created to help student loan borrowers nationwide in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congressional Republicans have proposed eliminating all existing IDR plans for future and current borrowers, including the SAVE Plan, and replacing them with a more expensive Repayment Assistance Plan as part of their reconciliation budget bill. Permanently dismantling the SAVE Plan and other IDR plans would have disastrous implications, including for the 8 million Americans already enrolled in SAVE and the millions more who need more affordable repayment options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Senate Parliamentarian has advised that these provisions eliminating SAVE and IDR options for current borrowers will be subject to the Byrd Rule if they remain in the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can watch Merkley\u2019s remarks on the Senate floor about the <em>SOAR Act <\/em>por <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OAaERp8k18I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">haciendo clic aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can read more about the <em>SOAR Act<\/em> por <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-kaine-launch-effort-to-protect-and-strengthen-federal-student-loan-repayment-options\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">haciendo clic aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C. \u2013 Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley released\u00a0the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked consideration of his Savings Opportunity and Affordable Repayment (SOAR) Act: \u201cAs the first in my family to go to college, I know the barriers that so many students face in accessing higher education. We should be doing all we can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":18846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[139,40,129],"class_list":["post-22524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-budget","tag-education","tag-protecting-consumers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Senate Republicans Block Merkley\u2019s Bill to Protect and Strengthen Federal Student Loan Repayment Options - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/senate-republicans-block-merkleys-bill-to-protect-and-strengthen-federal-student-loan-repayment-options\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senate Republicans Block Merkley\u2019s Bill to Protect and Strengthen Federal Student Loan Repayment Options - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington, D.C. \u2013 Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley released\u00a0the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked consideration of his Savings Opportunity and Affordable Repayment (SOAR) Act: \u201cAs the first in my family to go to college, I know the barriers that so many students face in accessing higher education. 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