More than 25 million borrowers have already applied for the debt forgiveness, which is being stalled by two lawsuits that will come before the Court on Tuesday.
President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program will go before the Supreme Court this week, deciding the fate of tens of millions of borrowers who could see up to $10,000 in debt canceled, or $20,000 canceled for Pell Grant recipients, if the justices rule in Biden’s favor.
Last summer, Biden announced that he would finally deliver on his campaign promise to forgive up to $10,000 per borrower after growing pressure to do so more than a year into his presidency. But his plans have been challenged by two separate lawsuits from conservative groups who opposed the loan forgiveness program, estimated to cost $400 billion.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in both cases, and either send the ball back to the Biden administration or clear the way for the 26 million who have applied for relief to finally see their loans erased.
The issue has become politically fraught, with some celebrating the forgiveness and praising the burden it lifts off of Americans, while others criticize its fairness and question whether it’s the right way to spend hundreds of billions at a time when the economy is already rocky.
The White House has billed the program as a way to ease borrowers back into loan repayments after being exempt for nearly three years as part of the temporary pause initially enacted by the Trump administration, which allowed those repayments to go unpaid without penalty and accruing interest in response to the COVID pandemic.
