President Biden extends moratorium on student loan payments

The Biden administration will extend the pause on student loan payments once again, President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday, as the program to cancel millions of peoples' student loans remains tied up in the courts.

The extension is intended to give the Supreme Court time to rule on the lawsuits brought against Biden's student loan program during its upcoming term. The pause on payments will lift either 60 days after the Supreme Court issues a decision on the program, or 60 days after June 30, depending on which date comes first, the Department of Education said.

"It isn't fair to ask tens of millions of borrowers eligible for relief to resume their student debt payments while the courts consider the lawsuits. For that reason, the Secretary of Education is extending the pause on student loan payments while we seek relief from the court," Biden said in a video posted by the White House on Tuesday afternoon.

Biden's plan aimed to cancel $20,000 of debt for people who received Pell Grants in college and $10,000 for all other borrowers, so long as they earn less than $125,000, or $250,000 as a married couple. In recent weeks, the plan was blocked by Republican-led lawsuits in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Northern District of Texas. Last week, the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to overturn the recent ruling in the Eighth Circuit that halted the relief program, or to consider hearing the case before the court during its upcoming term.