President Biden on Monday lauded the official launch of student loan forgiveness applications, with the White House touting that more than 8 million Americans have already applied for the administration’s program during an online soft launch that began late last week.
“Today marks a big step, among others, that my administration is taking to make education a ticket to the middle class that folks can actually afford,” Biden said. “The new student loan application is now open. If you have federal student debt, please visit StudentAid.gov. It’s easy, simple and fast and it’s a new day for millions of Americans all across our nation.”
Biden said the website, which soft launched on Friday, has handled applications “without a glitch or any difficulty.” The president, who was joined for the announcement by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, called the portal a “game changer” that would allow the government to better serve the public.
The beta testing phase that launched on Friday allowed applications to be submitted, but they were not processed until the formal launch.
The president’s student loan forgiveness program, which he unveiled in August, is set to forgive $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 and $20,000 for borrowers who received Pell Grants.
Since the announcement, the administration updated the plan to exclude borrowers with privately held federal student loans, saying loans not held by the Education Department are no longer eligible. Cardona said on Monday they are “working on pathways” to support those borrowers who are excluded.
“We’re moving as quickly as possible to provide relief to as many as possible,” the secretary added.
Several conservative groups and Republican state officials have filed lawsuits seeking to end the loan forgiveness program, though the filings have thus far failed to proceed because of lack of standing over who is harmed by the policy, which is optional. Biden noted in his remarks that litigation against the program is underway, adding “our legal judgment is that it won’t” stop the program.
Biden also took a jab at Republicans for criticizing the student loan forgiveness program for being too costly, arguing that it will be paid for because of his efforts to bring down the deficit.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre earlier on Monday said the administration has “seen an overwhelmingly positive response as well as a strong website performance since we began testing the site this past Friday night.”
Jean-Pierre added that the Department of Education’s technical team will continue to monitor the site’s performance in real time.