The White House announced it would forgive an additional $7.4 billion in student debt for 277,000 borrowers, bringing the total canceled by the Biden administration to $153 billion.
It’s the second large-scale effort by Biden, 81, to cancel billions in debt in a week, in a ploy that critics see as an attempt to “buy votes” ahead of the election general.
On Monday, the administration rolled out a combined plan that would affect some 30 million borrowers after its first offering was blocked by the Supreme Court last year.
Now, more borrowers having their student debt canceled will receive emails informing them of the decision on Friday.
“From the first day of my mandate, I promised to fight to ensure that higher education is a gateway to the middle class and not a barrier to opportunity. I will never stop working to cancel student debt – no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us,” Biden said in a statement.
The debt canceled Friday is for borrowers in three debt forgiveness programs already in use, including a plan that 18 GOP-led states are trying to block.
President Biden is touting his latest proposals to cancel student debt for millions of Americans during a visit to Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday. On Friday, the administration announced it was canceling an additional $7.4 billion in debt under programs already implemented, bringing the total canceled so far to $153 billion.
Nearly 207,000 borrowers are seeing some $3.6 billion in debt canceled thanks to President Biden’s SAVE plan, through which the administration began canceling student debt earlier this year.
Another 65,000 borrowers have their debt erased through administrative adjustments to income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. To date, the administration has erased $49 billion in debt through IDR plans.
Third, an additional 4,600 public employees are having their debt forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
A total of 4.3 million federal borrowers have had their student debt canceled since Biden took office.
“This shows that we are relentless in what we do to help millions of hardworking Americans with the burden of student debt,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said of the multiple debt cancellations .
The Biden administration has canceled $153 billion in student debt through a series of efforts, including the SAVE plan as well as changes to the Income-Based Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness plans.
Most of the debt canceled Friday comes from the SAVE plan, an income-driven repayment plan that reduces the time and money some borrowers must pay before their student debt is canceled.
The Biden administration announced the launch of the program last summer.
In February, the White House announced the first group to have their debt forgiven under the plan, and the Education Department said it would continue to identify eligible borrowers on an ongoing basis.
To date, eight million borrowers are enrolled in the plan. 4.5 million of these borrowers have a monthly payment of $0, and more than 1 million have monthly payments of less than $100, the White House said.
However, Republicans have blasted efforts to cancel the debt and accuse the president of trying to “buy votes” ahead of the election.
They called student debt forgiveness unfair to taxpayers who didn’t take out massive student loans for their education or had the opportunity to attend college.
Two lawsuits have been filed by Republican attorneys general against the Biden administration’s income-driven repayment program, known as the SAVE plan.
Republican attorneys general from 18 states are suing the Biden administration over the SAVE plan. A lawsuit signed by eleven states was filed in Kansas on March 28, while another with seven states was filed in Missouri earlier this week.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed the lawsuits, saying Republican elected officials wanted to increase their constituents’ monthly payments and keep them under a mountain of debt.
A senior administration official said they strongly believed in their legal authority to act.
Republican officials acknowledged they were unlikely to recover the already canceled debt.
Meanwhile, President Biden traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday to tout additional new plans to eliminate student debt.
These proposals are being implemented as part of a longer rulemaking process that the administration turned to after the Supreme Court blocked the initial plan.
According to the Biden administration, the new proposals would completely eliminate accrued interest for 23 million borrowers.
It would also cancel the entire amount of student debt for more than four million borrowers and provide more than 10 million borrowers with debt relief of at least $5,000 or more.
The five major measures include forgiving up to $20,000 in unpaid interest for borrowers who currently owe more on their student loans than they originally borrowed.
It would also erase the debt of two million borrowers who could have benefited from other forgiveness programs but have not yet applied.
Additionally, undergraduate borrowers who began repaying 20 or more years ago and graduate student borrowers who began repaying 25 or more years ago would also have their debt forgiven.
Borrowers enrolled in low-financial programs and those who have encountered financial difficulties repaying their loans would also receive relief.
President Biden released a video Monday touting his latest student debt cancellation proposals that would forgive accrued interest for millions, erase debt for some borrowers who have not yet enrolled but are eligible for others programs and would cancel the debt of some who have been in repayment for 20 years. or several years
Protesters outside the Supreme Court on June 30, 2023. Biden’s new student debt forgiveness proposals come after the Supreme Court blocked his initial debt forgiveness plan
The new proposals come after the president’s first massive $400 billion plan to cancel student debt was blocked by the Supreme Court last June.
“The debt of tens of millions of people was literally on the verge of being canceled, but then some of my Republican friends, elected officials and special interests sued us, and the Supreme Court blocked us,” said Biden on Monday, boasting “that didn’t stop us.” .’
Senior administration officials said they studied the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision carefully and implemented the new regulations in a manner consistent with that decision.
The new plans unveiled Monday are part of the regulatory process that began last summer and are being implemented under the authority of the Education Secretary under the Higher Education Act.
Administration officials said they are confident the new proposals are moving forward.
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