Biden to make use of Higher Education Act to avoid Supreme Court ruling on pupil mortgage plan

President Biden has shortly pivoted to Plan B after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his student-loan forgiveness plan.

Mr. Biden introduced Friday that he’ll enact a distinct pupil debt-relief program underneath a 1965 legislation, the Higher Education Act. Democrats together with Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York had been repeatedly urging Mr. Biden to show to the Higher Education Act if the Supreme Court killed his pupil mortgage reduction plan.

“Today’s decision has closed one path. Now we’re going to pursue another,” Mr. Biden mentioned of the Supreme Court ruling in remarks from the White House. “We will use every tool at our disposal to get you the student debt relief you need and reach your dreams.”

Mr. Biden had centered his debt forgiveness plan across the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities Act, which requires the existence of an emergency disaster state of affairs such because the COVID-19 pandemic to cancel pupil mortgage debt.

The Higher Education Act requires no such circumstances and has been used to cancel pupil debt in restricted instances.

Last 12 months, the Department of Education forgave $6 billion in loans for defrauded college students. In 2019, former President Trump used it to get rid of pupil mortgage debt for 25,000 disabled veterans.

However, there are not any assurances that invoking the Higher Education Act received’t meet the identical destiny as Mr. Biden’s earlier plan. In his 6-3 opinion Friday, Supreme Court Justice John G. Roberts Jr. famous the constraints of the Higher Education Act, which he mentioned solely utilized to some public servants, debtors who’ve died or develop into disabled, debtors who’re bankrupt, or those that have been defrauded.

Still, Mr. Biden mentioned Friday that his new path ahead is “legally sound” and “the best path forward.”

“We’re not going to waste any time on this. We’re going to be moving and it’s going to take longer but we are getting to it right away,” he mentioned.