Sixteen million Americans with student debt are set to have their application for forgiveness approved, the president announced, though the cancellation won’t appear on their accounts while a legal challenge from Republican-led states plays out in court.
Nearly 26 million have applied to student loan relief so far, President Joe Biden said in New Mexico Thursday, as the Department of Education has continued to accept and process applications while the program remains blocked after a court appeal from GOP attorneys general.
President Joe Biden on Thursday traveled to New Mexico to speak about the debt relief plan at a community college there, one of his final trips before the midterm elections end on Tuesday. He’ll carry on from there to campaign for Rep. Mike Levin in California before returning to the east coast.
Education officials have urged Americans to apply for debt relief this fall and winter in order to have their loans potentially forgiven before payments and interest restart in January. They have been paused due to the pandemic since former president Donald Trump first implemented relief in 2020.
Biden announced the opening of the online application in mid-October. It's a short digital form that requires your name, social security number and contact information.
"This is a game-changer for so many people," he said Thursday. "Close to 26 million Americans have already applied, have already given us information, which they consider life-changing for their families and for them."
The Biden administration has said about 40 million people could be eligible for student debt relief. Americans can apply for the program if they make less than $125,000 per year. Many will get up to $10,000 in forgiveness, while people who took a Pell grant during school are eligible for up to $20,000.
The White House said 37% of the students at Central New Mexico Community College, where he spoke Thursday, are Pell grant recipients, and 54% are Latino. Nearly half of student loan debt held by Latino borrowers is expected to be canceled, they estimate.
Biden spoke about his wife's long time job teaching community college and how the students she meets skew older, including some who go back to school after starting a family.
"Some of the students she meets work two or three jobs while going to school," he said. "They only ask for one thing in return: a chance. A chance to work hard and build a good life for themselves and their families."
"Many of those students, just like the students here, had to borrow money to cover the cost of tuition," Biden added. "This student relief plan is for them."
Biden in New Mexico also highlighted the state's program that provides tuition-free college, plus other federal changes his administration has implemented to make student debt forgiveness easier, such as fixes for Americans who work in public service and should get cancellation after ten years of payments.
And the president also hit back at Republicans who have pointed to the estimated $400 billion cost of the student debt program, such as Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida, calling them hypocrites for having their own pandemic business loans forgiven.
"He got forgiven $2.3 million. You can't make this stuff up," Biden said.
"Republican governors wrote me a letter saying that relief only helps the elite few. Did you all know you're elite?" he quipped to community college students in the audience.
Six Republican attorneys general have tried to block Biden's relief program with their lawsuit, and they’ve been temporarily successful.
A federal judge in St. Louis threw out their case because it lacked standing, but allowed a temporary stay on the Education Department’s ability to hand out relief while the group appealed. He ordered an expedited briefing schedule on the case as the court considers a full block on the forgiveness plan.