How Biden's latest student loan forgiveness differs from debt relief blocked by Supreme Court
CBSN
Washington — The Biden administration announced Friday that it will wipe out $39 billion in student debt for more than 800,000 borrowers, relief that comes weeks after the Supreme Court invalidated a separate, broader effort by President Biden to address student loan debt.
Unlike the broad forgiveness Mr. Biden originally attempted to provide, the forthcoming debt discharges by the Department of Education are narrower, stemming from "fixes" announced by the administration in April 2022 to ensure borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that go toward forgiveness.
The new student debt plan also relies on a different law than the one that was struck down by the Supreme Court. Under the 1965 Higher Education Act and federal regulations, a borrower is eligible for loan forgiveness after making 240 or 300 qualifying monthly payments — roughly 20 or 25 years of payments — on an income-driven repayment plan or standard repayment plan. The administration said "inaccurate payment counts" caused borrowers to lose "hard-earned progress" toward having their loans forgiven, which it has sought to remedy.
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