The Biden administration on Monday unveiled a new student loan forgiveness plan aimed at offering relief to more than 30 million borrowers.
The new plan would cancel up to $20,000 of accrued interest for every borrower regardless of income, with complete forgiveness of outstanding interest for low- and middle-income borrowers participating in an income-driven repayment plan, according to a White House statement on Monday.
“While Republican elected officials try every which way to block millions of their own constituents from receiving student debt cancellation, President Biden has vowed to use every tool available to cancel student debt for as many borrowers as possible, as quickly as possible,” the White House said in the statement.
The Monday proposal is President Joe Biden’s latest effort to circumvent the Supreme Court in canceling student debt after it struck down his program last June that sought to forgive more than $400 billion in student loans for about 43 million Americans.
In February, the Biden administration approved $1.2 billion in loan forgiveness for more than 150,000 borrowers enrolled in Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education Plan.
Eleven Republican-led states on March 28 filed a federal lawsuit against the administration, arguing Biden overstepped his authority again in creating the SAVE Plan. “Last time Defendants tried this the Supreme Court said that this action was illegal. Nothing since then has changed,” the lawsuit said.
