In the weeks leading up to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Biden administration continues to move toward providing millions of Americans with comprehensive student loan forgiveness.
The Office of Management and Budget has received the U.S. Department of Education’s so-called Plan B for student loan cancellation for evaluation.
According to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz, the OMB review is the final stage before the policy is published in the Federal Register.
According to Kantrowitz, the Education Department may start lowering or doing away with people’s loans as soon as the rule is released.
After the Supreme Court stopped its initial scheme in June 2023, President Joe Biden started working on his updated student loan reduction proposal. The revised policy provides assistance to a number of borrower groups, such as individuals who attended deceived schools or have been in repayment for decades.
Even in the final days of his presidency, the Biden administration is still looking for student loan relief, according to Kantrowitz.
According to analysts, the Education Department may attempt, in the final month under Biden, to pay off the debts of people who are struggling financially by implementing a second rule that is also being reviewed by the OMB.
According to a representative for the Education Department earlier this year, the debt cancellation could reach borrowers who have ongoing financial difficulties that keep them from repaying their student loans and for whom the department’s current relief alternatives are insufficient.
Nearly 5 million people have already benefited from Biden’s more extensive student loan forgiveness than any prior president. However, all of Biden’s attempts to provide extensive relief have been thwarted by Republican-led court challenges.
The same fate can befall his final endeavors. As soon as Biden’s most recent proposals for forgiveness are released in the Federal Register, consumer activists anticipate that additional lawsuits will be filed to seek an instant injunction against them.
A U.S. Department of Education representative chose not to comment.
Nevertheless, politicians and consumer advocates are pleading with Biden to take all necessary steps to provide student loan relief prior to the Trump administration taking office.
Trump and JD Vance, the vice president-elect, are outspoken opponents of student loan forgiveness.
According to a national survey conducted in mid-May by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only 15% of Republicans believe that student loan forgiveness is significant, compared to 58% of Democrats.
According to Braxton Brewington, spokesman for the Debt Collective, a union of borrowers, time is running out and if Biden doesn’t take action in the next four weeks, tens of millions of working people would suffer for four years.
On Dec. 4, dozens of lawmakers, including Sen.Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., wrotea letterto Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, urging the Department of Education to forgive the debt of borrowers who have applied for relief after beingdefrauded by their colleges.
The members’ requests included asking the Education Department to handle an estimated 400,000 borrowers’ pending borrower defense claims. Borrowers may qualify for that discharge if their colleges defrauded them or if their schools abruptly closed.
The congressmen explained in their letter that during the previous Trump Administration, borrower applications were permitted to linger for years. Borrowers frequently had their applications rejected and received no relief even if they were examined.
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