Biden’s student loan relief plan suffers another setback
The Biden administration’s student debt relief efforts suffered the latest blow Thursday when a federal judge in Missouri temporarily blocked the government from implementing a plan to provide student debt relief to millions of borrowers.
The ruling further hampers the administration’s efforts to boost student loan efforts ahead of the November election and comes amid ongoing Republican challenges to President Joe Biden’s student debt relief initiative.
The government announced the plans in April, Talk about these efforts Will provide student debt relief to more than 30 million borrowers. The proposals were never finalized.
Missouri leads Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota and Ohio in challenging the September lawsuit administration More than planned.
They filed the lawsuit in federal court in Georgia a few days ago Separate student debt relief efforts The Saving Valuable Education (SAVE) program continues to be on hold after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift a block on the program in late August.
After the lawsuit was filed in September, U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall in Georgia suspended the program in an order. temporary restraining order September 5th and extend the order The case will be available for review on September 19.
But on Wednesday, Hall Let the order expireThe Georgia lawsuit was dismissed and the case was transferred to federal court in Missouri.
Once the lawsuit moved to Missouri and the restraining order was not extended, the six remaining states in the case quickly sought preliminary injunction.
U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schhelp agree to state requirements Thursday, wrote that the administration is prohibited from “massively canceling student loans, forgiving any principal or interest, not charging borrowers accrued interest, or further taking any other actions under (the debt relief program) or directing federal contractors to take Such actions.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey praised Scherpp’s decision in a statement Thursday Post on X It’s a “huge victory for transparency, for the rule of law, and for every American to not have to pay for someone else’s Ivy League debt.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said in a statement that the agency was “extremely disappointed with the ruling on our proposed debt relief rule, which has not yet been finalized.”
“This lawsuit was filed by Republican elected officials who have made clear they will stop at nothing to prevent millions of their own constituents from getting breathing room on their student loans,” the spokesperson said.
They added that the department will “continue to vigorously defend these proposals in court” and “will not stop working to repair the broken student loan system and provide support and relief to borrowers across the country.”
The advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center also sharply criticized Missouri’s decision.
“In this case, the Missouri Attorney General continues to put naked political gain and corporate greed in front of student loan borrowers in Missouri and across the country,” Persis Yu, the advocacy group’s deputy executive director and managing counsel, said in a statement. stated in a statement. Thursday’s statement.
“This is a shameful attack on tens of millions of student loan borrowers and our entire justice system,” Yu said. “We will not stop fighting to expose these abuses and ensure borrowers get the relief they deserve.”
