Policy Updates

Although the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2023, struck down President Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 of federal student debt for 40 million borrowers, the Department of Education’s (ED) July 14 Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Account Adjustment announcement and President Biden’s June 30 “Plan B” response to the Court’s ruling offer alternative ways to cancel and reduce student debt. The first wave of the IDR Account Adjustment includes the automatic canceling of $39 billion in federal student loan debt for more than 804,000 borrowers. Eligible borrowers will not have to do anything to get this relief; the Biden Administration will contact the eligible borrowers and cancel their debt automatically. President Biden’s Plan B will use the Higher Education Act to begin a new process through “negotiated rulemaking” to establish a new debt relief/cancellation program. We will keep you informed of advocacy to get Biden's new student debt relief program implemented quickly. With student debt payments to resume this fall, President Biden announced another effort, the “12-month on-ramp” plan, that will bar the Department of Education from reporting delinquent borrowers who have missed payments to credit agencies for 12 months. Learn more from our partner, the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), about these new student debt relief efforts.

Organizational Letter to President Biden Urging Swift Action to Enact New Student Debt Cancellation Plan Immediately – July 19, 2023
Twenty-six million borrowers applied for debt relief and 16 million were approved during the short window of time that the application was open to the public. This deluge of applicants speaks to the popularity and necessity of student debt cancellation. Polling also continues to show that student debt cancellation is incredibly popular across the electorate. Despite the Supreme Court’s unjust decision, we applaud your efforts to move forward with an alternative authority and urge you to enact this program as quickly as possible to provide necessary relief to millions of people across the country.