President Joe Biden’s latest effort to cancel student loans through an “adjustment” to an existing federal program is the latest sign he intends to carry the issue into the 2024 presidential campaign.
On Friday, the Department of Education announced it would be adjusting the implementation of loan forgiveness under the Income Driven Repayment program, resulting in $39 billion in loans being canceled for some 800,000 borrowers. The IDR program allows borrowers to make payments commensurate with their monthly income instead of through a standard repayment plan. Borrowers who meet the payment requirements for at least 240 months can have their loans forgiven.
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According to the department’s press release, the adjustment will continue through the end of the year, and more borrowers may be eligible. The department says it will notify those borrowers every two months until all borrowers, including those not yet eligible for forgiveness, have had their progress toward eligibility updated.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration released state-by-state data on how many borrowers will be affected by the latest round of loan cancellation. The Department of Education is also hosting a virtual hearing on student debt Tuesday.
“President Biden continues to fight for student loan borrowers on all fronts,” a White House official said in a background statement.
The latest action comes after the Supreme Court struck down the president’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for all borrowers making less than $125,000. The administration has indicated it is looking for alternative means to enact broad student loan forgiveness, likely bringing the issue into the foreground of the 2024 campaign as Biden looks to secure a second term in office.
The effort is likely not the last by the administration to secure some semblance of student loan forgiveness and defy the court’s ruling from last month, Bob Eitel, the president and co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, told the Washington Examiner.
Eitel, who served in the Trump administration’s Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos, said the Biden White House is under immense pressure from left-wing political groups to provide student loan forgiveness and that it has become “one of the sacraments of the progressive church.”
“The public should look for additional actions by the administration, not only in connection with additional debt relief under current income based repayment programs, but also in connection with future rulemaking that they’re going to do under the Higher Education Act whereby they’re going to try to circumvent the ruling of the court,” Eitel said.
Beth Akers, a higher education finance expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said she sees the president continuing to push student loan forgiveness through the 2024 campaign, so he can run “as the ‘cancel student debt’ candidate” even as courts are likely to block further efforts to wipe out student loans. She also noted that Democrats were unable to enact loan forgiveness when they had unified control of Congress.
“The Democrats couldn’t pass mass loan forgiveness through Congress via the reconciliation process when they controlled both houses from 2021-2023 because moderates in their party recognized it was a bad idea,” Akers said. “Biden should come to the table with Republicans to address core issues facing borrowers, such as holding institutions of higher learning accountable for outcomes, streamlining federal borrower assistance programs, and targeting assistance to those who need it most.”
Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, told the Washington Examiner that the president is continuing to push for student loan forgiveness in order to pander to voters.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, criticized the president for attempting to “curry political favor” instead of addressing the causes of the student loan crisis.
“President Biden is making false promises that he doesn’t have the legal authority to fulfill,” the senator told the Washington Examiner. “Biden isn’t providing solutions that actually address the root causes of the student debt crisis. Instead, he’s trying to curry political favor as he heads into reelection.”
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House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) likewise described the administration’s efforts to cancel student loans as “a desperate Hail Mary attempt to save his bid for reelection.”
“It’s embarrassing, but more importantly, his willingness to ignore the Supreme Court and thumb his nose at the rule of law reveals a man who believes his power is absolute,” Foxx said. “That is not someone who deserves to lead our great Republic.”
