Biden’s Student-Loan Plan Seeks to Slash Debt for 30 Million Americans

The Biden administration is proposing a sweeping initiative to slash student debt for nearly 30 million Americans, a plan likely to face legal challenges from Republicans who helped kill an earlier White House attempt at large-scale loan cancellation.

The proposal, which President Biden is set to describe in a Monday speech in Wisconsin, marks a major new White House effort to appeal to progressives and young voters seven months before the November election, with polls showing him trailing his Republican opponent, Donald Trump, and underperforming among adults under 30.

The regulations will be rolled out in the coming months, according to administration officials, who said they hoped the first debt relief will kick in this fall, with millions of Americans potentially seeing large portions of their education loans forgiven by November.

Republican state attorneys general are already making plans to challenge the program in court. GOP state officials led a successful effort to overturn Biden’s earlier plan, which sought to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year. The Supreme Court ruled last year that Biden overstepped his authority in pursuing such wide-ranging loan cancellation.