By CHRIS COLLINS
Franklincountynow.com Contributing Editor
(undated) — Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling for all debt payments to be suspended during the COVID 19 pandemic.
In a post on the website Medium, Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown called for legislation to allow financially struggling Americans a penalty-free break from all debt payments, including credit cards.
“Americans should have the option to keep paying their debts if they have the means, but they shouldn’t be punished if they can’t do so,” Warren and Brown wrote. “That means no accrued interest, late fees, or other penalties for nonpayment of a debt.”
Warren also called for suspension of what she called “predatory efforts” by debt collectors, “which means a pause on garnishments, evictions, repossessions, and utility disconnections.” Massachusetts lawmakers this week passed a bill which would prevent people from being evicted or foreclosed upon for 120 days, or 45 days from the end of the COVID 19 state of emergency, whichever comes first.