President-elect Trump's actions and statements regarding student loans have left his supporters with a bleak outlook. They are now focused on getting President Biden to act quickly to grant pardons before the deadline expires.
President Trump has made it clear that he will not continue the massive student debt relief that Biden has provided to borrowers, and may even try to reverse some of the current administration's proposals.
And Biden is in a tight spot because much of the current action on student loans is tied up in the court system or isn't even scheduled to begin until next year.
Alan Collinge, founder of Student Loan Justice, said: “Now is the time for him to make good on his long-standing promise for his legacy.”
Advocates are focusing on the next four years of Trump's presidency, recalling his first term in which he proposed reversing some student loan policies enacted during the Obama administration and completely abolishing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. are.
Since leaving the White House, Mr. Trump has not often raised student loan debt as an issue, but Mr. He often celebrated defeat.
“Yesterday, the Supreme Court also ruled that President Biden will not be allowed to cancel tens of billions, perhaps trillions, of dollars in student loan debt. It's going to be very unfair to people who will pay off their debt through hard work and hard work,” Trump said at the time.
No previous or future president has made it clear that he will not roll out a loan forgiveness program, a major change from Biden, who issued the largest debt forgiveness program in presidential history, providing $175 billion to 5 million Americans. exempted.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
Biden's track record of pushing for both loan forgiveness and systemic change has given him some credibility with his supporters, but his time and options are severely limited at this point.
“President Biden has done more than any other administration to end this nation's student loan debt crisis. We are open to a variety of solutions to the problem. We expect that there will be problems, but governments should take every tool in their toolkit and implement all of them. “And I think it's best for the administration to decide what makes the most sense at this time and what is the safest path forward from the challenge.” said Christine McGuire, executive director of Young Invincibles, a group that focuses on issues like voters.
Student loan activists see much of their influence coming to an end with Trump's second White House, viewing the next two months as their last chance for at least four years of fruitful activism. There is.
“I think one of the easiest things Biden can do is get the one-time account reconciliation done. There are still a lot of borrowers who could be eligible for cancellation on the one-time account reconciliation, and they are still in the last minute.” , and that has been the case for almost the past two years,” said Natalia Abrams, founder and president of the financial institution. Student Debt Crisis Center.
Account reconciliations give credit to borrowers for plans that require them to make loan payments for a certain period of time before the debt is forgiven.
Abrams also said it could speed up Biden's efforts on a Plan B to provide relief to certain groups of borrowers, but a final decision on the effort is not expected until next spring, making it tough. It will be.
Other measures currently before the courts, such as the Savings on Worthy Education (SAVE) plan, would also be highly vulnerable if support from the Biden administration disappears.
Collinge announced Friday that he sent a mass action email to Student Loan Justice's more than 1 million members.
“We send a message today asking the President to do two things: First, restore bankruptcy rights for all federal student loans, which can be done by executive order. […] And secondly, obviously, we are asking him to use the Higher Education Act to cancel the loan,” Collinge said.
“He's had that power all his time in office. He's never used it,” he added.
But he added that there is still hope, albeit a small chance, of meaningful change under the Trump administration.
“Even before President Trump ran for president in 2015, he was asking questions like, 'Why does the federal government consider student loans a profit center?' That makes no sense. And he was right then. And if he sticks to his roots, I think that will reflect well on him going forward,” Collinge said.
Collinge also praised President Trump's use of executive orders regarding student loans, such as when he forgave the loans of 25,000 disabled veterans. Trump also used executive authority to suspend student loans during the pandemic.
“Mr. Trump is a bold man, and we expect him to be bold, honest and courageous,” he added.
