More than 30 million Americans have been targeted for relief under the proposal, which the White House says will help borrowers who have continued to see their loan balances grow because of accrued interest despite monthly payments being made. Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s initial student loan forgiveness program, ruling that the effort was in violation of federal law. Following the setback at the nation’s top court, the Education Department sought a workaround — using the rulemaking process — to circumvent the Supreme Court decision and proceed with plans for debt forgiveness. Now, the Biden administration’s new plan would “fully eliminate accrued interest for 23 million borrowers, would cancel the full amount of student debt for over 4 million borrowers, and provide more than 10 million borrowers with at least $5,000 in debt relief or more,” according to a statement from the White House explaining details of the program. The new plan would cancel up to $20,000 in accrued interest for borrowers whose balances are higher than when the loan started. Single borrowers who earn $120,000 or less and married borrowers who earn $240,000 or less would have their interest paid off withing having to apply. Under the new proposal, student loan debt would also be cancelled for borrowers who have been in loan repayment for 20 or more years. “Borrowers with only undergraduate debt would qualify for forgiveness if they first entered repayment 20 years ago (on or before July 1, 2005), and borrowers with any graduate school debt would qualify if they first entered repayment 25 or more years ago (on or before July 1, 2000),” the White House said. The administration will be releasing proposed rules on the plans over the next few months, which will have a public comment period. If finalized, eligible borrowers would begin seeing their debt forgiven this fall. Shortly after the April 8 announcement, President Joe Biden faced sweeping criticism of the plan, which some describe as bribing voters to win re-election. "As Missouri Attorney General I filed the lawsuit that stopped Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness scam. It saved taxpayers a half a TRILLION dollars,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt wrote on X. “He’s at it again — in a cynical effort to buy votes. It’s a huge middle finger to those who paid them back, or worked their way through college or took an entirely different path.” “He’s shedding younger voters and he knows he’s losing to Trump. He and the Dems are desperate and it won’t work,” Schmitt continued. “The country is ready to move on from his disastrous Presidency and the radical Left’s policies that are hurting Americans.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said in a statement posted to X, “Once again, President Biden is ignoring the Supreme Court and shamelessly raiding the treasury to transfer billions in student loan debt to taxpayers. He's using your money to buy votes. It's Biden -- not President Trump -- who is a threat to democracy.”The Biden administration has unveiled its latest plan to cancel millions of dollars of student loan debt.
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