Lame-duck Biden cancels student loan debt for tens of thousands in final push before Trump’s return

The lame-duck Biden administration announced the cancellation of student loan debt for nearly 55,000 public service workers Friday.

The roughly $4.3 billion effort provides additional loan “forgiveness” for roughly 55,000 members of the Department of Education’s (DOE) Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which erases debt for government and nonprofit employees who’ve made ten years worth of qualifying payments on their student debt, according to a DOE release. The push comes just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office on Jan. 20, and brings total student debt transferrals under President Joe Biden to roughly $180 billion.

“Four years ago, the Biden-Harris Administration made a pledge to America’s teachers, service members, nurses, first responders, and other public servants that we would fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and I’m proud to say that we delivered,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in the announcement. “With the approval of another $4.28 billion in loan forgiveness for nearly 55,000 public servants, the Administration has secured nearly $180 billion in life-changing student debt relief for nearly five million borrowers.”

Karine Jean-Pierre says Biden will unilaterally “cancel” more student loan debt as he continues defying the Supreme Court in an election year scheme to buy votes pic.twitter.com/QKMl57uSQl

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 22, 2024

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer criticized the DOE announcement in a post on X Friday: “Debt isn’t canceled, it’s transferred — in this case to every other taxpayer.”

The Friday loan “forgiveness” push is the latest in a long line of Biden administration efforts to repay student debt at the taxpayer’s expense, with the White House announcing a plan in August 2022 to cancel up to $10,000 in student loan debt for non-Pell Grant recipients and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients using the 2003 HEROES Act, which allows the Secretary of Education to “waive or modify” provisions of student financial assistance programs during a national emergency. The program, which would have provided loan “forgiveness” to nearly 40 million Americans, was struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2023.

“[T]he HEROES Act provides no authorization for the Secretary’s plan even when examined using the ordinary tools of statutory interpretation—let alone ‘clear congressional authorization’ for such a program,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion striking down the student loan debt transferal initiative.

The Biden administration has pressed on with loan “forgiveness” efforts in the wake of the legal defeat, canceling $1.2 billion of student debt in February, under Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education Plan, which is expected to cost U.S. taxpayers $475 billion across ten years.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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