President Biden signed off on yet another student debt forgiveness package Friday, giving $4.28 billion to nearly 55,000 public service workers.
The Education Department canceled the debt for student borrowers who have made more than 120 monthly payments as part of its Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which incentivizes careers in public service — like teaching and law enforcement.
“From Day One of my Administration, I promised to make sure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity,” Biden wrote in a statement.
“Because of our actions, millions of people across the country now have the breathing room to start businesses, save for retirement, and pursue life plans they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt.”
Biden, 82, has made it his mission to skirt around the Supreme Court striking down his initial plan to eliminate $430 billion in student loans via a 2003 law meant for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.
The initial sweeping plan, announced in August 2022, would have given away up to $20,000 for borrowers with Pell Grants and $10,000 for single Americans making under $125,000 per year and households making under $250,000 annually.
“Today’s decision has closed one path,” Biden said after the Supreme Court’s decision in 2023. “Now we’re going to start another.”
He immediately announced he would try other measures to deliver on his promise, launching an up to $475 billion cancellation effort that was later blocked by federal courts.
The latest measure brings Biden’s student debt relief awards total to nearly $180 billion — a sum that congressional Republicans have claimed was an election-year “ploy” that was paid off by working-class Americans who never pursued higher education degrees.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both traveled to critical 2024 swing states to tout the student loan forgiveness.
The cancellation push comes after his chief of staff vowed that further student debt elimination would be a focus in the president’s final weeks before President-elect Donald Trump comes into power.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona labeled the latest giveaway “a testament to what’s possible when you have leaders, like President Biden and Vice President Harris, who are relentlessly and unapologetically focused on making government deliver for everyday working people.”
At the same time, the Biden administration withdrew another cancellation attempt on Friday that would have wiped the slate clean for millions of borrowers facing “persistent financial burdens” — costing as much as $750 billion.
“The Biden-Harris administration’s student loan schemes were always a lie,” celebrated Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“With today’s latest withdrawal, they are admitting these schemes were nothing more than a dishonest attempt to buy votes by transferring debt onto taxpayers who never went to college or worked to pay off their loans.”
