On Thursday, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced that the Biden Administration would appeal a federal court ruling blocking the Administration’s Student Debt Relief Program.
“We believe strongly that the Biden-Harris Student Debt Relief Plan is lawful and necessary to give borrowers and working families breathing room as they recover from the pandemic and to ensure they succeed when repayment restarts,” Cardona said in a statement. “We are disappointed in the decision of the Texas court to block loan relief moving forward. Amidst efforts to block our debt relief program, we are not standing down. The Department of Justice has appealed today’s decision on our behalf, and we will continue to keep borrowers informed about our efforts to deliver targeted relief.”
Cardona said that the program has been very popular.
“More than 26 million borrowers have provided the information needed to process their applications for relief, and 16 million applications have been approved and sent to loan servicers to be discharged when allowed by the courts,” Cardona said. “Separately, we remain committed to taking other actions to fix longstanding issues in the student loan forgiveness system and hold schools accountable for leaving students with mountains of debt and without the skills and preparation to find good jobs. Despite this decision, we will never stop fighting for the millions of hardworking students and borrowers across the country.”
District Judge Mark Pittman ruled that the program was “an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power.”
The Biden administration claims that Congress gave the President authority to forgive student loans under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003.
Judge Pittman disagreed.
The lawsuit was filed in October by the Job Creators Network Foundation on behalf of two borrowers who are ineligible for all or part of the program.
The student loan forgiveness program would forgive up to $10,000 in student loans for borrowers who making under $125,000 a year and up to $20,000 for those who received Pell Grants.
Joe Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Program was instrumental in the Democrats’ surprisingly competitive finish in the recent midterm elections.
Young voters came to the polls in numbers not anticipated by pollsters and overwhelmingly voted for Democratic candidates swinging dozens of races in favor of the Democrats.
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