New Biden administration student loan relief proposal more narrow than Supreme Court-rejected plan

The Biden administration is moving forward with a new student loan relief plan that is narrower than its original proposal, which was struck down by the Supreme Court over the summer. 

The Department of Education released regulatory draft text Monday showing the new plan for student debt forgiveness is targeting specific groups instead of providing cancelation for all 45 million borrowers like officials planned last year. 

The administration is planning for the debt relief to go to borrowers who have federal student loan balances that are greater than what they originally borrowed, have loans they’ve been paying off for 25 years or more, attended schools with high student loan default rates or programs that created high debt but low wages and borrowers eligible for targeted relief programs in place, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. 

“President Biden and I are committed to helping borrowers who’ve been failed by our country’s broken and unaffordable student loan system,” said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “These draft proposals would build on the historic $127 billion in loan forgiveness the Biden-Harris Administration has already approved for nearly 3.6 million borrowers. We are fighting to ensure that student debt does not stand in the way of opportunity or prevent borrowers from realizing the benefits of their higher education.”

The department also issued a paper to consider adding one more group to their plan: borrowers experiencing financial hardship that the student loan system currently does not take into consideration. 

The draft does not detail how many borrowers would be impacted by the plan or how much it would cost. It could take months before those details are finalized. 

The draft proposal is for the committee that has been tasked with going through the negotiated rulemaking process that will ultimately work to make the final plan. The committee, made of different groups with stakes in student loan debt, will continue to meet in November and December. 

The proposal from the department is much narrower than their plan last year, which would have given at least $10,000 in student debt relief to all student loan borrowers.