President Joe Biden has canceled student debt for a further 277,000 people, bringing the total number of Americans approved for debt relief during his administration to 4.3 million.
The latest debt relief applies to people enrolled in the federal Saving on a Valuable Education Plan (SAVE), or people who were approved for relief because of fixes made to Income-Driven Repayment Plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, 7.5 million borrowers are currently enrolled in the SAVE Plan, an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan targeted to low—and middle-income borrowers. Those who were on the REPAYE Plan were automatically enrolled in the SAVE Plan when it was launched in August 2023.
In a statement released by the White House, Biden said: "From day one of my administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity.
"I will never stop working to cancel student debt—no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us."
The announcement comes after Biden unveiled additional plans earlier this week for student loan forgiveness that could provide relief on federal education debts for 30 million Americans.
It is part of an effort by Biden's administration to push down the level of collective student debt nationwide, which currently stands at $1.6 trillion, according to data from the Federal National Reserve.
The Democratic president has been striving for years to cancel student debt for millions of Americans, despite major setbacks, including a ruling by the Supreme Court last year saying that the Biden administration could not forgive $400 billion in student loan debt using a 2003 law, the HEROES Act.
That original plan, which was estimated to potentially affect more than 40 million people, would have erased $10,000 for borrowers with yearly incomes of up to $125,000 and an additional $10,000 if they received Pell grants for low-income students. The president called the top court's ruling a "mistake" but ordered the Education Department to find another way to cancel debt.
This chart, provided by Statista, shows the total federal student loans and the amount cancelled by the Biden-Harris administration (in billion U.S. dollars).
More than 28 million federal borrowers began making payments again in October 2023 after Congress ended a pause on loan payments and interest that had lasted over three years in June 2023, the duration of the pandemic.
Canceling student debt would help Biden keep faith in one of its key campaign promises and potentially boost support among young people ahead of the November presidential election, which is expected to be a rematch with his 2020 opponent, former President Donald Trump.
Republicans have strongly opposed any student debt cancellation, saying it's unfair to those who have already paid their loans or didn't go to college because they felt they couldn't afford to take on such a huge debt.
Read more: How to Consolidate Student Loans
According to the Biden administration, some of the debt could be canceled as soon as this fall, though a precise timeline hasn't been detailed yet.
Update 4/12/24, 7:52 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
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