The Biden administration announced on Monday that it is moving forward with canceling $39 billion in student loan debt.
This comes after Michigan District Judge Thomas Ludington dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Cato Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy against the Department of Education, citing a lack of standing.
“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,” President Joe Biden said in a statement released by 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,” Biden continued.
The 80-year-old president said that the loan cancellation plan seeks to address “errors and administrative failures of the student loan system that started long before I took office.”
“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 claimed.
“Under these plans, if a borrower makes 20 or 25 years’ worth of payments, they get the remaining balances of their loans forgiven,” he added.
Biden also said his latest effort to cancel debt is an example of one of the “alternative” paths his administration has taken to offer some borrowers relief.
“As I announced earlier this summer in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on our student debt relief plan, we will continue to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible. We will use every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams,” the president said.
More than 3.4 million students’ federal debt totaling more than $116.6 billion has been canceled by the Education Department since Biden took office.
