President Joe Biden canceled another $4.5 billion in student debt for more than 60,000 public-service workers through a federal student aid program on Thursday, despite his forgiveness plan facing legal challenges.
Since taking office, Biden has forgiven $175 billion in student loans for nearly 5 million borrowers, the White House said in a statement. That is equal to 11 percent of all remaining federal student debt, according to CNN. Over 1 million public-service workers have had their student loans canceled through such actions.
The president has been making student-loan forgiveness announcements throughout the year, prompting Republicans to criticize the Democratic administration for overstepping its authority.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Missouri temporarily halted the Biden administration from forgiving student loans until the courts decide on the plan’s legality. The day before, a federal judge in Georgia allowed a temporary restraining order to expire while a lawsuit filed by seven Republican-led states plays out in court.
Despite the Missouri judge’s recent preliminary injunction, the Biden administration continues to forgive federal student loans. The Supreme Court struck down the administration’s original proposal last year. In August, the Court refused to revive the latest plan when it was blocked by an appeals court’s nationwide injunction.
The program in question is the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, which now that it’s blocked, places at least eight million borrowers in a forbearance period until the matter is resolved. It’s unclear whether actions taken through the Public Student Loan Forgiveness program, which was invoked in Biden’s Thursday announcement, are affected by the nationwide injunction.
The appeals court did not clarify whether the order blocked PSLF when asked by the Biden administration, and the Supreme Court declined to intervene.
Established by Congress in 2007, the PSLF program promises forgiveness to public-sector workers — including teachers, nurses, first responders, and social workers — after they have made ten years of qualifying payments.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris released statements, taking credit for approving more student-debt relief than any other administration. Both said that only 7,000 people received student-loan forgiveness under PSLF before they took office in 2021.
“We vowed to fix that,” Biden said.
Meanwhile, Harris cast herself as the presidential candidate whose work will lower the cost of education and reduce the amount of student debt.
“While Republican elected officials do everything in their power to block millions of their own constituents from receiving this much needed economic relief,” Harris said, “I will continue our work to lower costs, make higher education more affordable, and relieve the burden of student debt.”