U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to United Auto Workers members at the UAW’s Community Action Program legislative conference in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 24, 2024.
Leah Millis | Reuters
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it will try to deliver student loan forgiveness to borrowers experiencing financial hardship.
After the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s executive order to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for tens of millions of Americans, his administration has searched for ways to cancel the debt using existing legal authority.
In what has become known as Biden’s Plan B for student loan forgiveness, the president has turned to the rulemaking process.
Over three rulemaking sessions, the negotiators tasked with determining who is eligible for the president’s revised relief plan came up with several groups of borrowers, including those with balances greater than what they originally borrowed and students from schools of questionable quality.
The Biden administration has been under pressure, however, to expand its aid to borrowers in financial hardship, too.
“While we appreciate the efforts of the Department and the negotiating committee, we are concerned that, without full consideration of cancellation targeted toward borrowers facing financial hardship, the rule will not provide adequate debt relief for the most vulnerable borrowers,” lawmakers including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona on Jan. 24.
The U.S. Department of Education will hold an additional rulemaking session on Feb. 22 and Feb. 23, during which the negotiating committee will focus exclusively on how to deliver relief to struggling borrowers.
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