The Biden administration will cancel student loans for another 160,000 borrowers through a combination of different programs.
The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellations on Wednesday, saying it would erase $7.7 billion in federal student loans. With that measure, the government said it had already canceled $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans through various programs.
“From the first day of my administration, I promised to fight to ensure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “I will never stop working to cancel student debt, no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.”
The new round would help people in three categories who meet some requirements that make them eligible for cancellation. It will include 54,000 people enrolled in Biden’s new income-based repayment plan, as well as 39,000 enrolled in previous income-based plans, and about 67,000 who can opt through the Public Service Debt Forgiveness program.
Biden’s new plan, known by its acronym SAVE, offers a faster process for loan forgiveness than previous versions. There are now more people who can request forgiveness of their loans when they complete 10 years of payments, a new goal that advances by 10 years the requirements that applicants had to meet.
The cancellation was still going ahead despite the plan facing legal challenges from states with Republican governments. A group of 11 states led by Kansas sued to block the program in March, followed by seven others led by Missouri in April. In two federal lawsuits, the states allege that Biden needed to go through Congress to overhaul the federal plans.
Another Biden administration initiative attempts to correct previous mistakes that delayed debt cancellation for some people enrolled in other repayment plans and through Public Service Debt Forgiveness, which forgives debts for people who have been paying for 10 years and are working. as public officials.
The Biden administration has been announcing new rounds of forgiveness each month as more people qualify for the three categories.
The Supreme Court rejected an earlier attempt by the president to do a blanket debt cancellation, saying it exceeded the president’s authority. The new project is based on other legal arguments.
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