Republican-led States Sue to Block Biden’s Student Loan Debt Relief
Abdullah Hasan, a White House spokesman, said the lawsuit is attempting to stop Mr. Biden from providing much-needed relief to people who are struggling in the wake of the pandemic.
“Republican officials from these six states are standing with special interests and fighting to stop relief for borrowers buried under mountains of debt,” Mr. Hasan said. “The president and his administration are lawfully giving working- and middle-class families breathing room as they recover from the pandemic and prepare to resume loan payments in January.”
The lawsuit, first reported by The Associated Press, is the second attempt this week to shut down the loan forgiveness program, which is one of the president’s major achievements during nearly two years in office. On Tuesday, a conservative legal group filed a lawsuit seeking to block debt cancellation, saying the program would force people to pay taxes on the debt that was forgiven.
Before the latest legal challenges, the Education Department on Thursday announced that it would no longer forgive the debt for students with federal student loans that are held by private companies. Eliminating eligibility for those students could make it harder for the Republican attorneys general to successfully attack the entire program in court.
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There are only about 770,000 people who hold that kind of debt, out of about 40 million who would still be able to apply for relief, according to officials. Students with federal student loans would be eligible for $10,000 in relief, while those with Pell grants for people from low-income families would be able to apply for $20,000 in debt cancellation.
Mr. Biden debated for more than a year before announcing the new policy last month, making good on a campaign promise that had helped him win support from progressives and students.
But the decision triggered fury from many conservatives, who argued that Mr. Biden was shifting a huge financial burden from students who had taken out loans to taxpayers who had paid for college without taking out loans or had chosen not to go to college in the first place.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/29/us/politics/suit-biden-student-loan-debt.html