(ConservativeSense.com) – The Biden administration hasn’t given up just yet on student loan forgiveness. The White House just announced that up to $1.2 billion in student loans will be forgiven, providing financial relief for at least 153,000 borrowers, which is only a fraction of what President Joe Biden originally promised his supporters.
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday, Feb. 21, that they will move forward with a plan to wipe out another $1.2 billion in student loan debt. The move is a piecemeal version of Biden’s original pledge, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2023.
That plan sought to cancel up to $430 billion by using a 2003 law designed to provide financial assistance to veterans that was later expanded to help forgive student loans in the event of a national emergency. The Education Department argued that the pandemic in 2020 qualified as such an emergency, although Biden officially ended that emergency declaration in May 2023.
After the Supreme Court ruled against that plan, the Education Department found other ways through existing programs to forgive up to $138 billion using executive actions. Around $39 billion of that figure went toward borrowers who’ve been on income-based repayment plans from 20 to 25 years, and $9 billion went toward borrowers who work in public service jobs, with disabilities, and on other income-based repayment plans.
Regarding the latest $1.2 billion forgiveness plan, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the announcement sends “a clear message to borrowers” with “low balances” who have been paying on their loans for a decade that they’ve done their part and “deserve relief.” Cardona praised the current administration for approving loan forgiveness for almost 3.9 million and said their “historic fight… isn’t over yet.”
The new forgiveness effort only applies to borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment program and those who took out $12,000 or less in student loans and have made efforts to pay off those loans for at least a decade.
Student loan forgiveness was one of Biden’s major campaign promises in 2020, one that he’s struggled to fulfill. With the next election just around the corner, the administration appears to be scrambling to appease its base as much as possible.
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