Biden’s massive bid to forgive $147 billion in student loans gets a sudden lifeline after string of defeats
A federal judge handed President Joe Biden a victory by allowing his administration to move forward with its plan to cancel the student debt of more than 25 million Americans.
U.S. District Judge Randal Hall in Georgia, who was appointed by former judge Republican former President George W. Bush allowed a temporary restraining order against the sweeping program to expire just weeks before the November election.
The plan would forgive loan debt for four types of student loan borrowers, including those who have more debt than they originally took on, those who have been making repayments for more than 20 years, those from schools with little financial value, and borrowers who qualified for a loan . other programs, but had yet to apply.
According to the Biden administration, it could eliminate at least some of the debt of three out of four federal student loan borrowers and could cost as much as $147 billion over 10 years.
Supporters hailed the plan to provide millions in aid, but critics have dismissed it as a massive transfer of debt to American taxpayers.
A federal judge allowed a temporary restraining order to expire, allowing the Biden administration to move forward with a student loan forgiveness plan
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed in Georgia last month challenging the president’s latest attempt to cancel student loan debt through seven Republican-led states.
The states led by Missouri, including Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota and Ohio, argued that the administration is exceeding its authority and that the plan would hurt state tax revenues.
But Hall discovered that they did not have enough standing to sue the relief plan in Georgia and dismissed the state from the case.
He ordered the case transferred to Missouri, where the Republican attorney general claimed the program would harm loan servicer MOHELA, which stands for Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.
The Biden administration can now move forward with finalizing its rule, but it could still be blocked.
The states filed a motion Thursday asking the Missouri court to block the regulation while the lawsuit continues.
Protesters outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2023 as the conservative justices blocked President Biden’s first massive student loan debt relief plan
The Biden administration has been working to wipe out the student debt of millions of Americans since the Supreme Court blocked his original plan to wipe out up to $20,000 in student loans from some 40 million borrowers by June 2023.
Since that ruling, the government has been working on the regulatory process.
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) Deputy Executive Director and Managing Counsel Persis Yu called the judge’s decision ‘a small victory for democracy’, but warned that the matter is ‘far from over’.