The Biden administration is canceling $39 billion in student loan debt for more than 804,000 borrowers, just weeks after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the president’s broader student-loan forgiveness program.
The Education Department announced Friday that it will automatically cancel future loan payments for qualified borrowers because of administrative “failures” in loan programs over the years.
“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress toward forgiveness,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “By fixing past administrative failures, we are ensuring everyone gets the forgiveness they deserve.”
The department will automatically cancel future loan payments for borrowers affected by the errors whose debts should have been forgiven after 20 or 25 years.
The move comes after the Supreme Court this month rejected President Biden’s centerpiece student-loan forgiveness program that sought to forgive up to $20,000 in debt for 43 million federal borrowers.