The White House has announced it is wiping out another $7.4 billion in student loan debt for 277,000 borrowers, bringing the total canceled by the Biden administration to $153 billion.
It is 81-year-old Biden’s second large-scale effort to forgive billions in debt in a week in a scheme critics say is a bid to ‚buy votes‘ before the general election.
On Monday, the administration rolled out a plan that would impact combined some 30 million borrowers after his first bid was blocked by the Supreme Court last year.
Now more borrowers seeing their student loan debt forgiven will receive emails informing them of the move on Friday.
‚From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, 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 being canceled Friday is for borrowers in three debt forgiveness programs already in use including a plan that 18 GOP-led states are suing to block.
President Biden touting his latest proposals to cancel student loan debt for millions of Americans during a visit to Madison, nhanlambangcap WI on Monday. On Friday, the administration announced it was canceling an additional $7.4 billion in debt under programs already implemented bringing the total forgiven so far to $153 billion
Nearly 207,000 borrowers are seeing some $3.6 billion in debt cancelled through President Biden’s SAVE plan, which the administration began forgiving student loan debt through earlier this year.
Another 65,000 borrowers are seeing debt wiped through administrative adjustments to the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans. To date, the administration has wiped out $49 billion in debt through IDR plans.
Third, an additional 4,600 public servants are seeing their debt forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
In total, 4.3 million federal student loan borrowers have seen student loan debt forgiven since Biden took office.
‚It shows we’re relentless in what we’re doing to help millions of hardworking Americans with the burden of student loan debt,‘ Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said of the multiple rounds of debt canceled.
The Biden administration has canceled $153 billion in student loan debt through a series of efforts including the SAVE plan as well as changes to Income-Driven Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness plans
The bulk of the debt being forgiven on Friday comes through the SAVE plan, an income drive repayment plan that cuts down on the amount to time and money some borrowers have to pay before their student loan debt is forgiven.
The Biden administration announced it was launching the program last summer.
In February, the White House announced the first group to see debt canceled under the plan, and the Education Department said it would continue to identify borrowers who qualify on a continuing basis.
Eight million borrowers are enrolled in the plan to date. 4.5 million of those borrowers have a monthly payment of $0, and over one million have monthly payments of less than $100, the White House said.
However, Republicans have blasted the effort to cancel debt and accuse the president of attempting to ‚buy votes‘ ahead of the election.
They’ve called the student loan debt cancelation unfair to taxpayers who did not take on massive student loans for school or have the opportunity to go to college.
Two lawsuits have been filed by Republican state attorneys general against the Biden administration’s income-driven repayment program known as the SAVE plan
The Republican attorneys general of 18 states are suing the Biden administration over the SAVE plan. One lawsuit signed onto by eleven states was filed in Kansas on March 28 while another with seven states was filed in Missouri earlier this week.
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