Student Loans: Biden Announces Extra $9B in Debt Relief for 125K Americans

Facts

• On Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced that his administration had approved an additional $9B in student debt relief for 125K borrowers.¹
• According to the White House, the loan relief will come from changes made to federal programs for low-income individuals, public servants, and borrowers with disabilities. $5.2B in debt forgiveness will be provided for 53K public service employees under the 'Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs.”²
• 51K borrowers who have made 20 or more years of payments will receive $2.8B, with a 'fix' to an income-based repayment plan. The final 1.2B will forgive 22K borrowers with 'total or permanent disabilities.'³
• Biden has said that this would bring his administration's total approved debt cancellation to $127B, covering nearly 3.6M Americans.⁴
• Biden had previously made student debt forgiveness a campaign promise, finding alternative measures to reduce student debt nationwide after his previous plans — which would have eliminated more than $400B in loans — were restricted by the Supreme Court.⁵
• The announcement of the new student debt relief plans comes as borrowers across the country prepare to restart payments, following a three-year pause that began during the COVID-19 pandemic.⁶

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²Forbes, ³CNN, ⁴The White House, ⁵NBC and ⁶Associated Press.

Narratives

• Democratic narrative, as provided by Associated Press. Millions of borrowers are eligible for student debt relief but have been unable to access the support they are qualified for. Biden is working to remove these barriers to access and fix this broken system in order to support hardworking Americans.
• Republican narrative, as provided by The Hill. Relieving student debt is unfair to those who will be paying for it but not reaping the benefits of a college education and will undermine the positive effects of the Inflation Reduction Act. Additionally, relieving student debt merely distracts from the real problem of the spiraling costs of college and a nationwide lack of affordability.

Predictions