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Dear John,
This week, President Biden announcement a three-part plan to deliver relief to many of those feeling the weight of the student debt crisis. The Biden Administration will provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation for non-Pell Grant recipients for federal loans taken out to attend college or eligible trade or career schools. Individuals who are earning less than $125,000 per year or households earning less than $250,000 are eligible for debt cancellation.
Additionally, the Administration extended the COVID federal student loan pause one final time through December 31, 2022.
Under this plan, the Administration is also working to make the student loan system more manageable for current and future borrowers by cutting monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans and holding schools accountable when they hike up prices.
I am also working to build support for the Making College More Affordable Act, legislation I introduced earlier this month to address the root causes of the student debt crisis. As we continue our work towards total student debt forgiveness, this legislation will ensure that students have the resources they need and will reform and simplify our broken student loan system. Higher education cannot just be a privilege of the wealthy, it must be accessible and affordable to every student looking to continue their education and set themselves up for the career path they choose.
You can learn more about the President’s plan here, sign up for updates about the program and applying for relief here, and read more about the Making College More Affordable Act here.
Updates from Rhode Island
$2.1M for Rhode Island Fire Departments
Six Rhode Island fire departments and our state’s Fire Training Academy will receive $2.1 million from the federal government to help strengthen firefighter operations and safety and offer new, intensive training classes.
Ensuring our fire departments and firefighters have the resources – funding, equipment, and training – that they need to stay safe is and will always be a top priority. This funding, made available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program and will help local fire departments prioritize operations and safety and are key to supporting these heroes and the work they do every day to keep us all safe.
The following cities and town fire departments and districts will receive the federal fire grants:
- North Kingstown: $848,081 for Mobile, Portable, Base Radios and Mobile Repeaters and $93,343 for Firefighter Training - regional award that also benefits East Greenwich Fire Department;
- Warwick: $743,452 for Mobile, Portable, Base Radios and Mobile Repeaters and Firefighter Accountability System;
- Rhode Island Fire Training Academy: $259,565 for Firefighter Breathing Apparatus, Training Props, and Tow Vehicle/Trailer;
- North Kingstown: Manville: $80,173 for Firefighting Hose, Equipment and Firefighter Training;
- Exeter: $63,333 for Firefighter Turnout Gear; and
- Johnston: $40,909 for Mobile Radio Repeaters.
Senior Center Visits
This week, I had the opportunity to visit with the Lincoln Senior Center, Mancini Center, and the Middletown Senior Center. I’m so glad that we can safely bring back these in-person meetings that give me a chance to hear from our seniors and discuss the policies and issues that are most impacting this community – including preserving our nation's social security promise and ensuring that Rhode Island’s seniors can retire and age with the dignity they deserve.
Welcoming Education Secretary Cardona to Rhode Island
On Monday, I joined with Education Secretary Cardona, Senator Reed, Senator Whitehouse, and the Pell family to mark 50 years of the Pell Grant and celebrate the opportunities this program has provided to more than 80 million students.
To continue Senator Pell’s legacy and ensure that this program can continue to support our students, we need to double the Pell Grant award and index this amount to inflation so that it continues to hold the same power for generations to come. I was joined this past April by 113 of my colleagues in making this request of the Appropriations Committee as they work on future spending bills.
75th Annual George Washington Letter Reading at Touro Synagogue
Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the United States, has long stood as a symbol of our freedom of worship. It was after his visit to the site in 1790 that George Washington wrote in a letter to the Hebrew Congregation, “[f]or happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
On Sunday, I joined the Touro Synagogue community for the 75th annual reading of this letter and to celebrate the principles of religious freedom. As we see incidents of antisemitism in the United States hit an all-time high, events like this are more important than ever. We must come together as Rhode Islanders and Americans to stand against intolerance and hate wherever and whenever we see it.
Updates from Washington, D.C.
New Draft of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act
Our democracy is strongest when a free and diverse press can inform citizens and hold power to account. But today, the free press is in economic freefall—especially local news—thanks to the free-riding of dominant online platforms, who seize news content to enrich their platforms but never pay for the labor and investment required to report the news. We would never expect a platform to stream movies without paying a film’s creators but because Google and Facebook simply take news content for free, and have monopolized the digital advertising market, newsrooms today are in dire economic peril—with regional and local news publishers downsizing or shuttering at alarming pace. The moment is urgent. At a time when journalism is more important than ever, the press is facing an extinction-level event. Congress must act – which is why my colleagues and I have released a revised version of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act.
This bipartisan bill removes legal obstacles to news organizations’ ability to negotiate collectively and secure fair terms from gatekeeper platforms like Google and Facebook that regularly access news content without paying for its value. The legislation also allows news publishers to demand arbitration if they reach an impasse in those negotiations. The revised bill can be found here and you can read a summary here.
Uniting for Ukraine: Welcoming Refugees
On April 21, as part of fulfilling President Biden’s commitment to welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the United for Ukraine program.
This program will enable Ukrainian citizens and their immediate family members who are outside the United States to come to the United States and stay temporarily in a two-year period of parole. To qualify for the program, Ukrainians must have a supporter in the United States. These supporters are responsible for providing their Ukrainian sponsors with financial support throughout their time in the United States.
You can learn more about the program, and becoming a sponsor, here.
Free Over-the-Counter COVID-19 Tests for Medicare Beneficiaries
More than 59 million Americans with Medicare Part B, including those enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, are eligible to receive Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, authorized, or cleared over-the-counter COVID-19 tests at no cost. You can learn more about the program here and find participating pharmacies here.
Shields Up: Guidance from the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is advising all US organizations, of all sizes, to be prepared to respond to any disruptive cyber security. CISA is reporting that "[e]volving intelligence indicates that the Russian Government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks."
CISA has launched the Shields Up program to help organizations prepare for, respond to, and mitigate the impacts of any attack.
Any abnormal cyber activity or incidents should be reported to [email protected] or 888-282-0827.
You can learn more about Shields Up and the support CISA can provide here.
Important Passport & Travel Reminder
As more Rhode Islanders and people around the world get vaccinated and boosted, we are seeing an increase in both domestic and international travel. With travel resuming, many folks are looking to renew passports and this uptick in requests has led to a backlog at the State Department. Turnaround time for expedited processing is now at 5-7 weeks and regular processing is taking 8-11 weeks from submission to receipt.
Before booking international travel, please remember to check the expiration date on your passport and plan accordingly. Passports last for 5 or 10 years, depending on your age when the passport was issued. Some countries require that your passport be valid at least six months beyond the dates of your trip. Some airlines will not allow you to board if this requirement is not met.
You can learn more from the State Department here.
As always, I am here to serve you. If there is anything I can do, please call my office at 729-5600 or send me an email at [email protected].
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