Biden’s new student loan forgiveness plan could start eliminating debts before the 2024 presidential election

President

Joe
Biden‘s

2020
campaign
promise
to
erase
student
debt
was
thwarted
at
the
Supreme
Court
last
June.
The
conservative
justices
ruled
that
Biden’s

$400
billion
loan
cancellation
plan
was
unconstitutional.

After
that,
the
president
directed
the
U.S.
Department
of
Education
to
examine
its
existing
authority
to
forgive
student
debt.
Mainly
by
improving
current
loan
relief
programs,
the
department
has
cleared
the
education
debts
of
4
million
people,
totaling
$146
billion
in
aid,
while
Biden
has
been
in
office.

Yet
Biden
has
been
under
intense
pressure
to
do
more.

“Over
40
million
people
were
promised
cancellation,
a
number
that
dwarfs
the
[people]
who
have
received
some
measure
of
relief,”
said

Astra
Taylor,
co-founder
of
the
Debt
Collective,
a
union
for
debtors.

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On
Monday,
at
an
event
in
Madison,
Wisconsin,
Biden
blamed
the
Supreme
Court
and
Republicans
for
stopping
his
first
relief
plan.

“Tens
of
millions
of
people’s
debt
was
literally
about
to
get
canceled,
but
then
some
of
my
Republican
friends,
elected
officials
and
special
interests
sued
us,
and
the
Supreme
Court
blocked
us,”
Biden
said. “But
that
didn’t
stop
us.”

The
president
announced
the
details
of
his
Plan
B
for
student
loan
forgiveness,
which
is
narrower
than
his
first
attempt
but
could
still
reach
tens
of
millions
of
people.

Instead
of
canceling
loans
for
nearly
all
federal
student
loan
borrowers,
this
program

targets
the
aid
at
certain
groups
of
people,
including
those
experiencing
financial
hardship
and
graduates
of
poor-quality
schools.
Meanwhile,

some
25
million
people
could
get
interest
on
their
debt
cleared
under
the
plan.

Kantrowitz
said
he
anticipates
the
Biden
administration
will
try
to
get
people
the
new
relief
before
they
cast
their
votes
in
November.

Almost
half
of
voters
in a
recent
survey,
or
48%,
said
canceling
student
loan
debt
is
an
important
issue
to
them
in
the
2024
presidential
and
congressional
elections.
SocialSphere,
a
research
and
consulting
firm,
polled
3,812
registered
voters,
including
2,601
Gen
Z
and
millennial
respondents,
in
mid-March.

Forgiving
student
debt
could
especially
help
Biden
with
young
voters,
a
demographic
he
has
been
struggling
with.
About
70%
of
Gen
Z
respondents
said
student
debt
cancellation
was
important
to
them
in
the
election,
that
same
survey
found.

The
issue
is
a
chance
for
Biden
to
differentiate
himself
from
his
likely
Republican
opponent

Donald
Trump,
who
has
a
record
of
opposing
debt
relief
for
students.

While
in
office,
the
former
president
called

for
the
elimination
of
the
popular
Public
Service
Loan
Forgiveness
program,
signed
into
law
by
President
George
W.
Bush
in
2007.
Trump
also
sided
with
the
Supreme
Court
in
its
ruling
to
strike
down
Biden’s
plan.

“Today,
the
Supreme
Court
also
ruled
that
President
Biden
cannot
wipe
out
hundreds
of
billions,
perhaps
trillions
of
dollars,
in
student
loan
debt,
which
would
have
been
very
unfair
to
the
millions
and
millions
of
people
who
paid
their
debt
through
hard
work
and
diligence;
very
unfair,”
Trump
said
at
a
campaign
event
in
June
2023. 

Biden
rolled
out
his
first
student
loan
forgiveness
plan
in
August
2022
through

an
executive
action,
which
he
hoped
would
allow
him
to
deliver
the
relief
quickly.
Borrowers
were
told
they
could
expect
the
relief

within
six
weeks
after
applying.

That
timeline
was
stymied,
of
course,
by
legal
challenges
and
eventually
dashed
at
the
Supreme
Court.

Now,
Biden
has
turned
to
the
negotiated
rulemaking
process,
a
difference
he
hopes
will
make
it
harder
for
the
courts
to
stop
him
this
time.

“The
rulemaking
process
is
stronger
than
executive
action,”
Kantrowitz
said.

But
the
procedure

can
be
lengthy,
with
several
steps.
It
involves
a
committee
of
negotiators
meeting
and
proposing
a
rule,
the
publishing
of
that
proposed
rule
in
the
Federal
Register
and
then
a
public
comment
period.
After
all
these
steps,
the
U.S.
Department
of
Education
can
publish
its
final
rule.

As
of
now,
the
negotiators
have
wrapped
up
their
sessions
and
the
Biden
administration
is
poised
to
release
its
proposal.
In
theory,
the
Education
Department
could
publish
its
final
rule
sometime
this
summer,
Kantrowitz
said.

Although
the
regulations
legally
wouldn’t
go
into
effect
until
July
2025
based
on
that
timeline,
Education
Department
officials
could
choose
to
make
some
of
the
provisions
effective
sooner
simply
by
posting
a
note
in
the
Federal
Register,
Kantrowitz
said.

“So
they
could
easily
implement
it
before
the
election,”
he
said.

However,
legal
challenges
to
the
plan
could
delay
that
goal.
Such
threats
are
already
brewing.

On
Monday,
after
Biden
announced
his
Plan
B
for
student
loan
forgiveness,
Missouri
Attorney
General
Andrew
Bailey,
a
Republican,

wrote
on
X
that
the
president “is
trying
to
unabashedly
eclipse
the
Constitution.”

“See
you
in
court,”
Bailey
wrote.

Correction:
President
Biden
issued
an
executive
order
tied
to
student
loan
forgiveness
in
August
2022.
An
earlier
version
misstated
the
phrase.