CNN
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The head of the Department of Education pledged Saturday to continue “full speed ahead” on President Joe Biden’s plan to implement a student debt relief program under a policy under review.
In an op-ed published Saturday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona doubled down on the government’s commitment to providing student debt relief and encouraged those eligible to continue applying through a live online application.
“While some Republicans are doing everything in their power to block the Biden administration’s debt relief program, officials are working full speed ahead to prepare for the program’s legal implementation, bringing relief to the borrowers who need it most. We are making it available,” Cardona wrote in the United States. today.
“22 million people have already provided the department with the information they need to verify their eligibility for student debt relief. We encourage borrowers to continue to apply for debt relief at studentaid.gov.” he continued.
in pairing Video posted on TwitterCardona cited “baseless” lawsuits brought by Republican-led states to sabotage the program.
Cardona emphasized that the Department of Education estimates that nearly 90% of the benefits of the debt relief plan will go to people earning less than $75,000 a year. He also underscored Republicans’ claims that Cardona argued that Republicans did not sue when they benefited from Paycheck Protection Program loans from the federal government.
“The only time these elected officials have a problem is when relief comes to working and middle-class Americans,” Cardona argued in his op-ed.
“This program will help borrowers by providing relief following the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic. We will never stop fighting – even if elected officials and lawsuits try to stop us.
Late Friday, a federal appeals court imposed a temporary administrative hold on Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, preventing the government from canceling loans covered by the policy while the court considers the appeal. Did.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit’s order comes in a lawsuit filed by six Republican-led states seeking a preliminary injunction to suspend policy after a district court dismissed the lawsuit earlier this week. increase. The effort is separate from a challenge by a group of Wisconsin taxpayers to the program recently dismissed by the Supreme Court.
The appeals court has Monday to give the administration to respond to the state’s request, and the state must respond to its response by Tuesday. The state had asked the appeals court to take action by Sunday, the earliest date the Biden administration said it would grant student loan forgiveness.
After Friday’s ruling, the White House urged borrowers to apply for relief despite the suspension.
The lawsuit, filed last month, was dismissed by a lower court judge on October 20, ruling that the plaintiffs had no legal standing to challenge, CNN previously reported.
The Biden administration is also facing lawsuits from Arizona Attorney General Mark Brunovich and conservative groups such as the Job Creators Network Foundation and the Kate Institute.
Many of the legal challenges argue that the Biden administration does not have the legal authority to cancel student loan debt broadly.
Government lawyers argued that Congress empowered the education secretary to forgive debts in a law known as the HEROES Act of 2003, CNN previously reported.
Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, first announced in August, is expected to help millions of people before federal student loan payments resume in January after a nearly three-year pandemic-related pause. It is intended to provide debt relief to borrowers.
Under Mr. Biden’s plan, eligible individual borrowers with an annual income of less than $125,000 in 2020 or 2021, and married couples or householders with an annual income of less than $250,000 in that year, will be eligible for federal student loan debt. Up to $10,000 is waived.
If an eligible borrower also received a federal Pell grant while in college, the individual is eligible for debt forgiveness of up to $20,000.
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