U.S. President Joe Biden will announce on Monday plans to ease student debt that would benefit at least 23 million Americans, his administration said, addressing a key issue for young voters whose support he needs as he seeks re-election in November.
The issue remains high on the agenda of younger voters, many of whom have concerns about Biden’s foreign policy on the war in Gaza and fault him for not achieving greater debt forgiveness. Republicans have called Biden’s student loan forgiveness approach an overreach of his authority and an unfair benefit to college-educated borrowers while other borrowers received no such relief.
To date, the administration has said it has approved $146 billion in student debt relief for 4 million Americans. Biden has vowed to continue pushing student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible following the Supreme Court’s decision blocking his earlier plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in debt, and administration officials said they studied the 6-3 ruling in crafting the new plans.