By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-03 19:04:16 | Updated at 2024-10-06 22:44:18
3 days ago
A federal judge delivered a victory for President Joe Biden by allowing his administration to move forward with its plan to cancel student loan debt for more than 25 million Americans.
U.S. District Judge Randal Hall in Georgia, who was appointed by former Republican former President George W. Bush, allowed a temporary restraining order against the sweeping program to expire just weeks before the November election.
The plan would forgive loan debt for four types of student loan borrowers including those who have more debt than they originally took out, those who have been in repayment for more than twenty years, those from schools with little financial value, and borrowers who qualified for other programs but had yet to apply.
It could wipe at least some debt for three out of four federal student loan debt borrowers and cost as much as $147 billion over ten years, according to the Biden administration.
Supporters hailed the plan for providing relief to millions, but critics have blasted it as a massive transfer of debt to American taxpayers.
A federal judge let a temporary restraining order expire allowing the Biden administration to move forward with a student loan forgiveness plan
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed last month in Georgia against the president's latest effort to cancel student loan debt by seven Republican-led states.
The states led by Missouri and including Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota and Ohio claimed the administration is exceeding its authority and the plan would hurt state tax revenues.
But Hall found they lacked standing to sue over the relief plan in Georgia and dismissed the state from the case.
He ordered the case be transferred to Missouri where the Republican state Attorney General has claimed the program would harm the loan servicer MOHELA which stands for Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.
The Biden administration can now move forward with finalizing its rule, but it could still end up being blocked.
The states filed a request on Thursday asking the Missouri court to block the regulation while the lawsuit moves forward.
Protesters outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2023 as the conservative justices blocked President Biden's first massive student loan debt relief plan
The Biden administration as been working to wipe out student loan debt for millions of Americans since the Supreme Court blocked its original plan to wipe out up to $20,000 in student loan debt for some 40 million borrowers in June 2023.
Since that ruling, the administration has been working through the rule-making process.
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) Deputy Executive Director and Managing Counsel Persis Yu called the judge's decision 'a small victory for democracy' but warned the case is 'far from over.'
