© Reuters. US President Joe Biden speaks about the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the admission programs for race-minded students at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, during briefings in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
Written by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Friday announced new measures to provide student loan forgiveness for Americans and condemned the U.S. Supreme Court for blocking a plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in debt that was popular with his constituents.
Thwarted by the conservative-leaning court, Biden told reporters his administration would pursue student loan relief through a different vehicle, the Higher Education Act. The Department of Education has launched a regulatory “rulemaking” process that will likely take months.
In a 6-3 decision earlier Friday, the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s plan to cancel $430 billion in student loan debt. The ruling, which Republicans welcomed, threatened to dismantle part of the Democratic president’s policy agenda.
Biden said his administration will take a different approach to achieving his goal.
“Today’s decision closed one path. Now we will start another,” Biden told reporters. “I believe the court’s decision to cancel my student debt forgiveness program was wrong, and it was wrong. I will not stop fighting to provide what they need to borrowers, especially those at the bottom of the economic ladder.”
As part of the overall plan, the Education Department ended a program to reduce payments that borrowers with college loans must make each month to 5% of discretionary income instead of 10%, which the department said would help them save $1,000 annually.
The loan forgiveness will be offered to borrowers with balances of $12,000 or less after 10 years of payments instead of 20 — a benefit intended to help community college graduates.
Progressive voters, who are part of the coalition that helped elect Biden in 2020, have long pressured the White House to tackle student loan debt; The court’s decision intensified calls for more action.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a prominent progressive voice, said on Twitter after the Supreme Court’s decision and before Biden spoke: “The president has more tools to cancel student debt — and he should use them.”
House Democratic, progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged Biden to use powers under the Higher Education Act to continue loan forgiveness before resuming payments after a pause. “We still have the power to cancel and we must use it, or we’re looking at an economic crisis for millions of people,” she said on Twitter.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll this year showed that about 53% of Americans supported Biden’s original student loan forgiveness program, while 81% of Democrats did.
Democrats want voters to see Biden fight for student debt relief before he bids for re-election in 2024, hoping the court’s conservative rulings on debt forgiveness and affirmative action or race-sensitive college admissions considerations will motivate them in the same way as the court’s decision. . To eliminate abortion rights in 2022.
The White House has made clear it will blame Republicans for thwarting student loan relief efforts. Biden has blasted Republican elected officials for supporting billions of dollars in pandemic-related loans to businesses that were eventually forgiven but did not support student debt relief.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, in a briefing with reporters, listed a handful of Republican lawmakers, whom he named, who have been collectively forgiven by millions of dollars in pandemic-related loans.
Republicans have argued that Biden’s initial student loan relief plan was unconstitutional and unfair.
“Biden’s student loan bailout unfairly punished Americans who had already paid off their loans, saved for college, or made a different career choice,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. And we’re grateful the Supreme Court did, too.”