US President Joe Biden’s administration is cancelling $7.4 billion in student loan for 277,000 borrowers, according to a statement released on the official White House website.
Earlier this month, Biden announced plans to ease student debt, addressing a key issue for young voters whose support he needs in November’s presidential election. Biden, a Democrat, pledged last year to find other ways to address debt relief after the Supreme Court in June had blocked his broader plan for $430 billion in student loan debt forgiveness.
Under President Joe Biden, the Education Department has made it easier for some specific groups of borrowers, such as public sector workers, to qualify for loan forgiveness. It has also launched a new repayment plan that creates a shorter path to loan forgiveness for many low-income borrowers.
In total, the Biden administration has authorised $153 billion in student loan debt relief for nearly 4.3 million people, over 9% of all unpaid federal student loan debt.
As the November elections approach, the White House has sought to demonstrate how much student loan debt it has forgiven by making new debt cancellation announcements about once a month and sending emails directly to eligible borrowers.
Biden’s efforts to forgive student loans have been sharply criticised by many Republicans, who argue that the president is shifting the expenses to taxpayers who choose not to go to college or who have already paid for it themselves. They also argue that he is circumventing Supreme Court decisions.
In the past few weeks, two groups of Republican-led states have sued the Biden administration over a revenue-based debt repayment plan launched last year. The plan, known as SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education), offers the most generous terms for low-income borrowers. About $3.6 billion of the student debt relief announced on Friday will be given to people participating in the SAVE Plan.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday that Republicans planned to obstruct the president’s actions.
Republicans in 18 states want to prevent their own constituents from benefiting from the SAVE plan. They want to end SAVE, make their constituents’ payments go up and keep them under mountains of loan debt with no end in sight.
