President Biden announced on Monday, April 8, 2024, that he would be implementing a new student debt forgiveness plan that is expected to relieve over 30 million borrowers when combined with actions that the Biden-Harris administration has already implemented. According to the New York Times, while there are likely going to be legal challenges, Biden can begin administering some of the expected debt relief.
Biden said in his statement, “I will never stop delivering student debt relief to hard-working Americans, and it’s only in the interest of America that we do it.”
Until this point, the Biden-Harris administration has been able to approve $146 billion in student debt relief through over 20 executive bills. This includes fixing Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Driven Repayment plans and initiating the SAVE plan, the most affordable student loan repayment program.
Last June, the Supreme Court blocked the Biden-Harris administration’s initial debt relief plan, which attempted to allow $400 billion of debt relief, which had the potential to affect 40 million people. This prompted the Department of Education to pursue other ways to ensure debt relief, leading to the current proposal.
According to the New York Times, this project is expected to reduce payments for 25 million borrowers and remove all debt for 4 million people. This plan will affect those whose loan balances have increased because of interest, those who are low or middle class, those who are eligible for loan forgiveness under other programs, those who are paying off loans for an undergraduate degree over 20 years ago, and many more. This new plan targets specific groups of people as opposed to widespread forgiveness.