Biden cancels $39 BILLION in student debt for 800,000 borrowers despite Supreme Court saying he can't
· Jul 14, 2023 · NottheBee.com

President Joe Biden's administration announced on Friday that it would cancel $39 billion in student debt.

The Department of Education will notify eligible borrowers "in the coming days," CNBC reports.

In the past, payments that should have moved a borrower closer to being debt-free were not accounted for, according to the Biden administration.

"For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness," U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a 6-3 vote with the majority against Biden's previously announced student loan cancelation plan.

"'Can the Secretary use his powers to abolish $430 billion in student loans, completely canceling loan balances for 20 million borrowers, as a pandemic winds down to its end?'" Chief Justice John Roberts said in the majority opinion for Biden v. Nebraska. "We can't believe the answer would be yes."

"Under the Secretary's plan, roughly half of all federal borrowers would have their loans completely discharged," Roberts wrote. "MOHELA could no longer service those closed accounts, costing it, by Missouri's estimate, $44 million a year in fees...The plan's harm to MOHELA is also a harm to Missouri."

In this new move, the Biden administration argues it is canceling debt on the technicality of "fixing" issues with the loan-repayment program that allows income-driven repayment to be forgiven after 20 years or 25 years.


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