On Monday, it was announced that President Biden is moving forward with eliminating the $39 billion in student loan debt for over 800,000 borrowers.
This came after Michigan District Judge Thomas Ludington dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Cato Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy against the Department of Education due to a lack of standing.
The lawsuit argued that the administration’s plan to forgive loans from borrowers who have been repaying them for 20-25 years violates the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act.
“On Day One of my Administration, I promised to fight for hardworking families and to fix problems in the student loan system that have been failing borrowers for too long,” Biden said at the White House on Monday.
“I’m proud that my Administration is delivering on that promise and has already approved over $116 billion in debt cancellation for 3.4 million Americans – no matter how many lawsuits, challenges, or roadblocks Republican elected officials or special interests put in our way.”
He said the loan forgiveness initiative aims to rectify “mistakes and administrative shortcomings within the student loan system that predates my tenure.”
“When I came into office, hundreds of thousands of borrowers weren’t accurately getting credit for student loan payments that should have delivered them forgiveness under Income-Driven Repayment plans or were placed into forbearance by loan servicers in violation of Department of Education rules,” Biden claims.
“Under these plans, if a borrower makes 20 or 25 years’ worth of payments, they get the remaining balances of their loans forgiven.”
According to ABC News, some 804,000 qualifying borrowers will soon receive emails from their services with the subject line “Our student loans have been forgiven.”This notification process is expected to wrap up in a matter of weeks.
