The Harris-Biden administration unveiled its latest attempt at canceling student loan debt Friday, introducing new rules that would wipe the slate clean for millions of borrowers facing “persistent financial burdens.”
Approximately 8 million borrowers “experiencing hardship” would be eligible for the program, which would authorize the secretary of education to “waive up to the entire outstanding balance of a student loan” when it is determined that the borrower is unlikely to pay it off.
“For far too long, our broken student loan system has made it too hard for borrowers experiencing heartbreaking and financially devastating hardships to access relief, and it’s not right,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
“The rules proposed by the Biden-Harris Administration today would provide hope to millions of struggling Americans whose challenges may make them eligible for student debt relief,” said Cardona.
The Harris-Biden administration defines the “persistent financial burdens” that would allow an individual to qualify as “unexpected medical bills, high child care costs, significant expenses related to caring for loved ones with chronic illnesses, or devastating economic circumstances from the impacts of a natural disaster.”
The Department of Education acknowledges that “many borrowers can and do recover” from these sorts of hardships.
Under the proposed rules, the Department of Education will provide two pathways for canceling debt.
The first pathway would allow the secretary of education “to grant individualized, automatic relief without an application” to borrowers determined to have an 80% chance of being in default within two years.
The second pathway would allow “current and future cohorts of borrowers to receive relief based on a holistic assessment of the borrower’s hardship and would be primarily application-based.”
The Department of Education touts that the two pathways will “support student loan borrowers for generations to come.”
House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) slammed the Harris-Biden administration’s latest student loan forgiveness effort as a “giveaway” and an attempt to “bribe voters” less than two weeks from Election Day.
“Surprise, surprise, we’re eleven days out from an election, and the Biden-Harris administration announces another sham plan to shift responsibility for paying for college from those who took out loans to those who didn’t,” Foxx said in a statement.
“The latest blatant attempt to bribe voters is the hallmark of a desperate administration that’s squandered the chance to make meaningful, lasting reform when it comes to college costs,” she added. “Biden, Harris, and Cardona ought to be ashamed of themselves.”
The Harris-Biden administration has already canceled some $175 billion in student loan debt despite several Republican-led lawsuits seeking to block the gambits.