WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and his colleagues in the Senate have received dozens of endorsements through petitions and letters in support of the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act introduced on May 6, 2014, which would allow those with outstanding student loan debt to refinance at the lower interest rates currently offered to new borrowers. Student loan debt is the second highest form of consumer debt, now at a staggering $1.2 trillion, and it is weighing on the economy – stopping young people and families from buying homes, buying cars and starting businesses.

The Senator’s refinancing bill has been sponsored by more than 35 senators. An updated version of the bill was introduced yesterday, on which the Senate plans to vote next week. 

The legislation introduced last month would allow many of the 40 million borrowers with student loan debt to refinance, and it is fully funded by enacting the Buffett Rule, which would limit special tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans that allow millionaires and billionaires to pay lower effective tax rates than middle class families. A companion bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representatives John Tierney (D-Mass.) and George Miller (D-Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Visit our website for more information, including a fact sheet of the bill and video of Sen. Warren’s floor speech introducing the bill. The Congressional Budget Office’s scoring of the bill can be found here.

The current list of group and organization endorsers is below.  

AFL-CIO

ICUM (representing 60 colleges and universities in Massachusetts)

American Federation of Teachers

Campaign for America’s Future

Center for American Progress

Center for Responsible Lending

Center for Working Families

Connecticut Citizen Action Group (CCAG)

CREDO

Demos

Democracy for American

Ed Votes

Generation Progress

Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association

MoveOn

National Education Association (NEA)

Ohio Student Association

One Wisconsin Now & Institute

Our Time

Progress Now

Progressive Change Campaign Committee

Progressives United

Roosevelt Institute Campus Network

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Student Debt Crisis

Woodstock Institute

Working Families Party

Young People For (YP4)

Young Invincibles

###