The White House has announced it is wiping out another $7.4 billion in student loan debt for 277,000 borrowers, bringing the total cancelled by the Biden administration to $153 billion.
It is Biden’s second large-scale effort to forgive billions in debt in a week in a scheme critics say is a bid to ‘buy votes’ before the general election.
On Monday, the administration rolled out a plan that would impact some 30 million borrowers after his first bid was blocked by the Supreme Court last year.
Now more borrowers seeing their student loan debt forgiven will receive emails informing them of the move on Friday.
‘From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. I will never stop working to cancel student debt – no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us,’ Biden said in a statement.
The debt being cancelled Friday is for borrowers in three debt forgiveness programs already in use including a plan that 18 GOP-led states are suing to block.
President Biden touting his latest proposals to cancel student loan debt for millions of Americans during a visit to Madison, WI on Monday. On Friday, the administration announced it was canceling an additional $7.4 billion in debt under programs already implemented bringing the total forgiven so far to $153 billion
Nearly 207,000 borrowers are seeing some $3.6 billion in debt cancelled through President Biden’s SAVE plan, which the administration began forgiving student loan debt through earlier this year.
Another 65,000 borrowers are seeing debt wiped through administrative adjustments to the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans. To date, the administration has wiped out $49 billion in debt through IDR plans.
Third, an additional 4,600 public servants are seeing their debt forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
In total, 4.3 million federal student loan borrowers have seen student loan debt forgiven since Biden took office.
The Biden administration has canceled $153 billion in student loan debt through a series of efforts including the SAVE plan as well as changes to Income-Driven Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness plans
The bulk of the debt being forgiven on Friday comes through the SAVE plan, an income drive repayment plan that cuts down on the amount of time and money some borrowers have to pay before their student loan debt is forgiven.
The Biden administration announced it was launching the program last summer.
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