Biden and VP Kamala Harris Announce NEW $39 Billion College Debt Forgiveness For 809K People
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated a brand new plan to forgive $39 billion in student loan debt for 809,000 borrowers — on the heels of a Supreme Court decision that gutted their previous more sweeping student loan plan.
On Friday morning, the White House and Department of Education announced “Biden-Harris Administration to Provide 804,000 Borrowers with $39 Billion in Automatic Loan Forgiveness as a Result of Fixes to Income Driven Repayment Plans.”
The forthcoming discharges are a result of fixes implemented by the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure all borrowers have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that qualify toward forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. These fixes are part of the Department’s commitment to address historical failures in the administration of the Federal student loan program in which qualifying payments made under IDR plans that should have moved borrowers closer to forgiveness were not accounted for. Borrowers are eligible for forgiveness if they have accumulated the equivalent of either 20 or 25 years of qualifying months.
Shortly thereafter, Vice President Harris issued a statement praising the plan, and promising more:
President Joe Biden and I are committed to delivering relief to student loan debt borrowers to help them move forward with their lives – whether they want to start a family, buy a home, or become an entrepreneur. Today, we are taking another historic step by forgiving $39 billion in student loan debt for 804,000 borrowers who have been paying down their debts for 20 years or more and should qualify for relief. Instead, many were placed into forbearance by loan servicers in violation of the rules, and others did not get appropriate credit for their monthly payments. Addressing these harmful practices and reducing student loan debt has been a priority throughout my career. As California Attorney General, I won $1 billion for defrauded veterans and students by taking on predatory for-profit colleges.
We will not stop there. Last month, President Biden announced we are pursuing an alternative path to provide relief through the Higher Education Act, and we finalized our new income-driven repayment plan – which will cut monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans. Our Administration will continue to fight to make sure Americans can access high-quality postsecondary education without taking on the burden of unmanageable student loan debt.
The president has frequently given VP Harris the opportunity to make solo statements on major issues and announcements, a departure from previous White Houses.
