President Joe Biden speaks about lowering health care costs in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. – President Joe Biden will announce his latest effort to broaden student loan relief next week for new categories of borrowers, according to three people familiar with the plans, nearly a year afterhis administration’s first attempt to cancel debt for millions who attended college.
And the fresh announcement on student loan relief, a vital issue for younger voters, could help energize parts of Biden's political coalition whoover his job performance — people whose support the president will need to defeat presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump this year. Biden's latest attempt at cancellation is expected to be smaller and more targeted than his original plan, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in loans for more than 40 million borrowers. Details of the new plan have come into focus in recent months as the Education Department brought its ideas to a panel of outside negotiators with an interest in higher education, ranging from students to loan servicers.
Borrowers paying down their student loans for decades would get all remaining debt erased under the department's plan. Loans used for a borrower's undergraduate education would be canceled if they had been in repayment for at least 20 years. For other types of federal loans, it's 25 years. Under pressure from advocates, the department also added a category for those facing “hardship.” It would offer cancellation to borrowers considered highly likely to be in default within two years. Additional borrowers would be eligible for relief under a wide-ranging definition of financial hardship.