Biden cancels additional $4.5 billion in student debt
6:04 am Thursday, October 17th, 2024
(Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday canceled another $4.5 billion in student debt for over 60,000 borrowers, bringing the number of public service workers who have had their student loans cancelled to over 1 million.
In total, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved $175 billion in student debt relief for nearly 5 million borrowers through various actions, the White House said in a statement.
Republicans have described the Democratic president’s student loan forgiveness approach as an overreach of authority and an unfair benefit to college-educated borrowers while others receive no such relief.
Earlier this month, St. Louis-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Biden administration from “mass canceling” student loans and forgiving principal or interest under the plan, pending the outcome of the state’s lawsuit.
(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
