Proposals include making existing forgiveness programs-such as borrower defense to repayment, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, closed-school discharge, and total and permanent disability discharges- work better for borrowers 2 cancelling some or all student debt fixing the income-driven repayment system and further extending the current payment pause, among others. To address these challenges and deficiencies, a host of advocates, researchers, and policymakers from across the political spectrum have called for large-scale student loan-related reforms. And those enrolled in or considering postsecondary education, particularly low-income students and students of color, may postpone graduation, delay enrollment, or experience other forms of hardship, increasing their odds of leaving school without a degree and eventually defaulting on their loans.Ĭompounding these challenges, the current student loan repayment system is complex, confusing to borrowers, and unprepared for tens of millions to reenter repayment simultaneously after the period of paused payments ends. 1 However, for many, this insecurity-reflecting long-standing structural inequities and racism in health care, education, and wealth-building opportunities-will be long term. The Biden administration extended those protections through at least Septemand expanded them to include borrowers with commercially held Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans that are in default. We rate the promise Stalled.To address the pandemic and related economic downturn, Congress and the Trump administration suspended payments, interest, and collection efforts for borrowers with student loans held by the Department of Education. There's still time for Biden to start pursuing broad-based student-loan forgiveness, but his actions so far do not suggest he will. 'I don't think I have the authority,' Biden said.Īll in all, Biden has 'cancelled debt for those who already should have had it under existing policies, but has yet to create policies to expand debt cancellation to a broad level,' said Jalil Mustaffa Bishop, an assistant professor in Villanova University who has studied the issue. 'That's not even a discussion.'īiden himself echoed that in a February 2021 town hall, when he said he was doubtful that an executive action would pass legal muster.

'The president can't do it,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in July. But even Democratic officials have expressed doubts about this course. Some forgiveness advocates have urged Biden to use executive action as a way to work around opposition in Congress. John Thune, R-S.D., the second-ranking Republican in the chamber, called large-scale loan forgiveness ' incredibly, fundamentally unfair' to those who already repaid their debts. Republican opposition would make it a hard sell in Congress.

He has declined to include a broad-based student loan forgiveness in the major legislative vehicle for safety-net proposals, the Build Back Better bill, which has been passed by the House and is awaiting action in the Senate. However, Biden's actions so far do not suggest that this proposal is high on his agenda. The continuation of the pandemic pause has bought Biden some time before he has to decide on whether to pursue across-the-board student loan forgiveness. Might there be an across-the-board forgiveness?

Biden pauses student loans