Biden admin plans to ask Supreme Court to take up student debt plan
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration plans to ask the Supreme Court to reinstate the president’s student debt cancellation plan, according to a Thursday legal filing warning that Americans will face financial strain if the plan remains stalled in court when loan payments are scheduled to restart in January.
The Justice Department is fighting to keep Biden’s plan alive after it was halted by two federal courts in recent weeks. On Thursday it asked a federal appeals court in New Orleans to suspend a decision striking down Biden’s plan, and in the same filing it announced plans to ask the Supreme Court to overturn a St. Louis appeals court that halted the plan.
Biden’s plan promises $10,000 in federal student debt forgiveness to those with incomes of less than $125,000, or households earning less than $250,000. Pell Grant recipients, who typically demonstrate more financial need, are eligible for an additional $10,000 in relief.
Keeping the debt relief on hold would leave the government with an “unnecessarily perilous choice,” the administration argued in its filing Thursday. If it restarts student loan payments as planned on Jan. 1, millions of Americans will get billed for debt that was promised to be canceled. But if the government extends the payment pause, it will cost billions of dollars in lost revenue.
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