Biden Administration Details Plan for Broader Debt Relief
Katherine Knott
October 31, 2023
The draft proposal offers relief to borrowers who fall into certain categories, including those whose balances exceed the amount they initially borrowed.
The Education Department is proposing to cancel some or all of the outstanding student loans for certain categories of borrowers, including those who have spent more than 25 years in repayment or those who attended career-training programs that didn’t pay off, according to a draft proposal released Monday evening.
The announcement is the first look at specific debt-relief proposals since the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for Pell Grant recipients and eligible borrowers earning less than $125,000 a year. After the court’s decision, Biden vowed to try again to provide some form of student loan forgiveness.
“Today’s announcement builds on the progress we’ve made so far, which has included approving $127 billion in loan forgiveness for nearly 3.6 million borrowers to date,” Education Under Secretary James Kvaal said on a call with reporters Monday. “We know that there are still so many Americans out there who have been failed by the broken systems of the past, and we’re committed to helping as many of them as possible.”
