Biden pushes to finalize more student debt relief before end of term, including for 'future borrowers'

President Biden’s Department of Education is trying to push through a new federal rule during the final weeks before President-elect Trump takes over to provide additional student loan forgiveness for 8 million borrowers who face financial hardships. 

If finalized, the new rule would authorize student debt forgiveness on a one-time basis for people who the department considers to have at least an 80% chance of defaulting on loans based on a “predictive assessment using existing borrower data.”

The rule would also allow people, including potential “future borrowers,” to apply for relief that will be awarded based on “a holistic assessment of the borrower’s hardship.”

Negotiated rulemaking for higher education between 2023 and 2024 began last year, and this latest rule was discussed in committee as early as November 2023. However, the rule was not proposed until Oct. 31 and is working its way through a public notice and comment period expected to end Dec. 2.

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“For far too long, our broken student loan system has made it too hard for borrowers experiencing heartbreaking and financially devastating hardships to access relief, and it’s not right,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “The rules proposed by the Biden-Harris administration today would provide hope to millions of struggling Americans whose challenges may make them eligible for student debt relief.”

While a handful of Biden’s previous attempts to wipe out student debt have been struck down as an overreach of power by the courts, and despite federal rulemaking typically taking anywhere from a few months to a few years to be completed, the Biden administration has not been dissuaded from initiating additional attempts to eliminate Americans’ student loan debt during its final weeks.

In 2023, Biden announced his administration’s greatest effort to wipe out student debt for millions of borrowers through a new “SAVE” plan that sought to reduce borrowers’ debt obligations based on their economic circumstances. However, the effort was shot down by the Supreme Court after it was determined Biden did not have authority under a 2003 federal law to unilaterally forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt.

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In addition to the SAVE program, other efforts by the Biden administration to cancel student debt relief remain tied up in the courts.

President-elect Trump has described Biden’s attempts to wipe out debt for student borrowers “a total catastrophe.”

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“They didn’t even come close to getting student loans,” Trump said during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in September, referring to the courts shooting down Biden’s student debt forgiveness attempts. 

“They taunted young people and a lot of other people that had loans. They can never get this approved.”

The White House did not respond with an on-the-record comment when reached by Fox News Digital.