A federal judge on Thursday extended a temporary restraining order blocking the Harris-Biden administration from forgiving billions of dollars in student loan debt.
U.S. District Judge Randall Hall ruled that there was “sufficient cause” to extend for 14 days the Sept. 5 injunction that blocked the Department of Education's efforts to revoke $147 billion in funding.
“The extension will allow the Court to properly consider and evaluate the parties' briefs and arguments submitted during the September 18, 2024 hearing and to issue an order addressing the pending claims,” Hall wrote.
Republican attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio sued President Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona earlier this month, alleging that the debt forgiveness plan would illegally wipe out $73 billion in federally held student loans “overnight.”
The plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction against the plan, but the Harris-Biden administration has asked Hall to drop the lawsuit.
The Harris-Biden administration plan would “waive up to $20,000 in interest for millions of borrowers,” including those with household incomes over $240,000, and cancel the balances of undergraduate borrowers who have been paying their loans for 20 years and graduate borrowers who have been paying them for 25 years.
The bill would also forgive student debt at institutions that once participated in federal grant or loan programs but no longer do so, or at non-degree programs or institutions that the Department of Education has determined are not providing economic value to students.
The extension of the moratorium is the latest in a series of setbacks to President Biden's efforts to forgive student loan debt.
In June, federal judges in Kansas and Missouri issued nationwide preliminary injunctions barring the Harris-Biden administration from forgiving any more federal student loan payments for borrowers participating in the Savings for Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, which has an estimated cost of $475 billion.
The Supreme Court decided last month not to lift the injunction.
Last summer, the Supreme Court rejected Biden's previous attempt to forgive $400 billion in federal student loan debt.
