May 17, 2024

UUP has joined AFT, NEA, the United Auto Workers and more than 220 other national, state and local civil rights, community and labor organizations in a nationwide push to support President Joe Biden’s “Plan B” proposal to cancel billions of dollars in student debt.

UUP is a signatory of a May 17 letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona urging him to move “swiftly and urgently” to finalize rules proposed by Biden that would provide debt relief to tens of millions of working Americans.

The letter was submitted to the Federal Register in response to a 30-day public comment period for the Biden Administration’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), published April 17.

Read the letter HERE.

The new policies would cancel up to $20,000 in interest for all borrowers who, through accrued or capitalized interest, owe more money on their federal loans than they originally borrowed. This is expected to help more than 25 million borrowers, according to the Boston-based Nonprofit Quarterly.org.

The new policies would also:

• Cancel student debt for borrowers with undergraduate loans who have been paying for at least 20 years and debt for graduate school borrowers who began repayment at least 25 years ago;
• Cancel student debt for borrowers who previously enrolled in low-financial-value programs; and
• Cancel student debt for borrowers experiencing hardship that prevents them from fully paying back their loans now or in the future.

“The Biden Administration’s proposed NPRM represents a glimmer of hope for these millions of borrowers and their families that have been forced to wait for nearly two years for much-needed relief,” the letter read. “Therefore, it is critical that the Department move swiftly and urgently to finalize and implement these rules and deploy necessary relief to the estimated 30 million working Americans who will benefit from them.”

Read more HERE.

Biden’s attempt to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt per borrower using an executive order was struck down last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. Since then, the Biden administration has used other means to cancel $153 billion in student debt for 4.3 million Americans.

This is Biden’s latest attempt to provide student debt relief to millions of Americans who are paying off federal student loans.