US President Joe Biden announced a plan to provide $39 billion in student debt relief as part of a drive to continue helping borrowers. The initiative is part of an alternative path to debt relief being explored by the Biden administration following the Supreme Court’s decision to block a more wide-ranging initiative last month.
In statements shared with the press, the president said, “I have long said that college should be a ticket to the middle class – not a burden that weighs down on families for decades. My administration is delivering on that commitment.”
“Starting today, over 800,000 student loan borrowers who have been repaying their loans for 20 years or more will see 39 billion of their loans discharged because of steps my administration took to fix failures of the past,” he added.
According to the White House, the move will see hundreds of thousands of borrowers join the many millions that have been provided with relief since the administration took office. Figures cited by the president indicate that over 116 billion has been provided to over 3 million borrowers in a two-year period.
In additional comments made on the subject of student debt relief, the president added, “My administration has worked hard to secure the largest increases to Pell Grant in a decade, fixed broken loan programs such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness and created a new income-driven repayment plan that will cut undergraduate loan payments in half and bring monthly payments to zero for low-income borrowers.”
Biden compared his student loan plan to attempts in the past by Republican lawmakers to forgive millions of their own business loans, referring to their resistance to his bills as ‘hypocrisy’.
“Some are even objecting to the actions we announced today, which follows through on relief borrowers were promised, but never given, even when they had been making payments for decades.”
Ismael David Mujahid
Associate Editor