WASHINGTON – Outgoing President Biden announced Monday that his administration will forgive federally owned student loans for an additional 150,000 borrowers. This would cost taxpayers an additional $4.23 billion and bring the total number of recipients of benefits during his term to approximately 5 million.
Biden, 82, announced in January that he had ordered the cancellation of about $183.6 billion in student loans after the Supreme Court struck down a previous plan to wipe $400 billion off balance sheets in 2023 with a stroke of the pen. He is scheduled to step down as president on the 20th.
Monday's announcement continues a phased-in approach by Biden, who is nearing the end of a strategy to make up for a plan that was rejected in court to reduce payments by $10,000 to $20,000 per college attendee.
The initiative drew sharp criticism from Republicans and complaints from Americans who are not attending college or have already paid off their balances.
“Today, my administration approved student loan relief for more than 150,000 borrowers, bringing the total number of Americans whose student loans have been canceled by my administration to more than 5 million,” Biden said in a statement. said.
“Among these 150,000 borrowers are approximately 85,000 borrowers who attended schools that defrauded students, 61,000 borrowers with total and permanent disabilities, and 6,100 government employees. It includes people.”
The Department of Education said $465 million is being disbursed through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, a bipartisan initiative signed into law by President George W. Bush but not implemented since it took effect in 2017. The above problem occurred.
Additional grants include $1.26 billion for students who were allegedly defrauded, $1.15 billion of which went to people who attended schools owned by the Center for Higher Education; $2.5 billion will go to people with total or permanent disabilities.
It was not immediately clear whether any of the latest grants would face litigation, as some of Mr. Biden's efforts have faced since the landmark Supreme Court ruling.
The high court has already ready for review Biden previously sought to cancel $17 billion in debt owed by students who were allegedly defrauded by for-profit institutions.
