Biden proposes new measures for student loan relief after Supreme Court defeat
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Republicans argued that Mr Biden’s initial student-loan relief plan was unconstitutional and unfair.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden on Friday announced new measures to provide student loan relief to Americans and condemned the Supreme Court for blocking a plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in debt that was popular with his voters.
Thwarted by the conservative-leaning court, he told reporters that his administration would pursue student loan relief through a different avenue, the Higher Education Act.
The Education Department launched a regulatory “rule-making” process that is likely to take months.
In a 6-3 decision earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court blocked Mr Biden’s plan to cancel US$430 billion (S$582 billion) in student loan debt.
Mr Biden said his administration would pursue a different way to achieve his goal.
“Today’s decision has closed one path. Now we’re going to start another,” he told reporters.
“I believe the court’s decision to strike down my student debt relief programme was a mistake, was wrong. I’m not going to stop fighting to deliver borrowers what they need, particularly those at the bottom end of the economic scale.”
As part of the overall plan, the Education Department finalised a programme to reduce payments that borrowers with undergraduate loans have to pay monthly to 5 per cent of discretionary income rather than 10 per cent, which the administration said would help them save US$1,000 a year.
Loan forgiveness would be offered to borrowers with balances of US$12,000 or less after 10 years of payments rather than 20 years – a benefit aimed at helping community college graduates.
Progressive voters, who are part of the coalition that helped elect Mr Biden in 2020, long have put pressure on the White House to address student loan debt. The court’s decision intensified calls for further action. “The President has more tools to cancel student debt – and he must use them,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive voice, said on Twitter after the Supreme Court’s decision and before Mr Biden spoke.
Progressive House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged Mr Biden to use his authority under the Higher Education Act to continue loan forgiveness before payments resume after a pause.
“We still have the power to cancel and must use it, or we’re looking at an economic crisis for millions of people,” she said on Twitter.
About 53 per cent of Americans supported Mr Biden’s original student loan forgiveness programme, while 81 per cent of Democrats did so, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed this year.
Democrats want voters to see Mr Biden fighting for student debt relief ahead of his re-election bid in 2024, hoping conservative rulings from the court on debt relief and affirmative action or race-conscious college admission considerations would galvanise them in the same way the court’s ruling to strike down abortion rights did in 2022.
The White House made clear it would be putting blame on Republicans for stymieing student-loan relief efforts. Mr Biden blasted Republican elected officials for supporting billions of dollars in pandemic-related loans to businesses that were eventually forgiven but not supporting student debt relief.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, in a briefing with reporters, listed a handful of Republican lawmakers, whom he named, who collectively had millions of dollars in pandemic-related loans forgiven.
Republicans argued that Mr Biden’s initial student-loan relief plan was unconstitutional and unfair.
“Biden’s student loan bailout unfairly punished Americans who already paid off their loans, saved for college, or made a different career choice,” Republican National Committee chairman Ronna McDaniel said. “Americans saw right through this desperate vote grab, and we are thankful that the Supreme Court did as well.” REUTERS
