WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has earned at least $174,000 a year during her nearly eight years in Congress, yet House financial disclosures show she still carries a sizable amount of student loan debt, a situation shared by several of her fellow “Squad” members.
The Democrat representing parts of the Bronx and Queens has reported owing between $15,001 and $50,000 in federal student loans since she was first elected to the House in 2018. Her most recent disclosure, filed in August, lists the same debt range, as lawmakers are required to report assets, income and liabilities in broad categories rather than exact figures.
Ocasio-Cortez, widely associated with the slogan “Tax the Rich!,” also reported total assets of less than $81,000.
In recent remarks, Ocasio-Cortez has indicated that she has been setting money aside for egg freezing, a fertility procedure that can cost roughly $10,000 to $20,000 per cycle.
“I got sworn into the House of Representatives when I was 29 years old,” she said in an Instagram video. “There’s this flip side where you have to then grow up in the public eye in a time that most people usually get to grow more privately.”
The student loans date back to her years at Boston University, where she studied international relations and economics from August 2007 to May 2011. After graduating, she worked as a bartender in Manhattan before launching the congressional campaign that propelled her to national prominence.
Ocasio-Cortez has long been one of Congress’ most vocal supporters of student debt cancellation. During former President Joe Biden’s administration, she urged the 46th president to wipe out as much as $50,000 in debt for each student borrower. Still, she is not the only member of Congress who continues to list student loans on financial disclosure forms.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), another prominent “Squad” Democrat, has reported carrying as much as $50,000 in student loan debt over the past eight years — even as her net worth at one point rose to as much as $30 million because of her husband’s winery and venture capital businesses.
Not all her colleagues who entered the same freshman class of 2018 have failed to pay off their student debts.
Fellow “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) had up to $100,000 in law school loans that have been partially paid off in the same time period — but could still amount to as much as $50,000 too, per House disclosures.
Meanwhile, moderate Rep. Jared Golden (R-Maine) similarly held up to $100,000 in outstanding student debt but paid off at least half of it by his last House filing.
RELATED: Abdul El-Sayed Under Fire After 4,000 Puppies and Kittens Killed at Animal Facility He Oversaw
Early in his term, Biden expressly rejected writing off up to $50,000 in outstanding student loan debt, earning AOC’s ire.
“Entire generations of working class kids were encouraged to go into more debt under the guise of elitism. This is wrong,” she said in February 2021. “Nowhere does it say we must trade-off early childhood education for student loan forgiveness. We can have both.”
“We’ve got the Senate Majority Leader on board to forgive $50k. Biden’s holding back, but many of the arguments against it just don’t hold water on close inspection,” she added, criticizing lower proposed debt cancellations of $10,000 or so.
Ocasio-Cortez and other House Democrats also pushed for years for legislation to eliminate student debt, a popular 2020 campaign pledge that Biden tried to implement before his administration was overruled by the Supreme Court in June 2023.
That could have cost taxpayers as much as $430 billion over a decade-long period. Other plans Biden floated in the wake of its failure could have cost up to $475 billion.
“It is very important to note this SCOTUS ruling does NOT remove Biden’s ability to pursue student loan forgiveness,” Ocasio-Cortez posted after the 2023 decision. “The Biden Admin can use the HEA (Higher Ed Act) – our position from the start – to continue loan forgiveness before payments resume. They should do so ASAP.”
Ocasio-Cortez has also pointed out that the government won’t foot the bill for her voluntary decision to freeze her eggs either — but neither she nor other House Democrats have submitted bills yet seeking taxpayer-funded coverage for the procedures.
The potential 2028 presidential hopeful also rejected that her own political ambitions influenced her decision to freeze her eggs at age 36 — while refusing to answer The Post’s questions about whether she was still engaged to beau Riley Roberts.
The egg-harvesting process can be costly but allows women to store unfertilized eggs from their ovaries at sub-zero temperatures for years before they are ready to be implanted.
“This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” she told her followers. “And if people want to make assumptions about my decision, let them make those assumptions. I feel empowered to make this choice.”
Initial consult fees can range from the hundreds of dollars while the actual egg-freezing cycle cost thousands, in addition to up to $1,000 annually for storage.
A 2025 study published in Fertility and Sterility found women under the age of 40 who froze their eggs had increasing success rates in terms of pregnancy based on the number of eggs stored, with 20 or more eggs recording an 81.8% success rate.
Reps for Ocasio-Cortez did not respond to a request for comment.
