Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
An appeals court placed a temporary stay on Biden’s student-loan forgiveness on Friday.
While it doesn’t mean the plan is permanently blocked, Democrats slammed Republicans for trying to stop the relief.
For now, borrowers can still keep applying until the court makes a final decision on the legality of the plan.
Republicans are doing everything they can to ensure student-loan forgiveness doesn’t reach millions of Americans — and Democrats aren’t happy about it.
On Friday evening, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals placed a temporary stay on President Joe Biden’s student-debt relief plan, in response to a lawsuit filed by six Republican-led states seeking to halt the plan. That ruling does not mean the relief is permanently blocked — it only means Biden cannot cancel any debt until a final decision on the legality of the relief is made. But it has Democratic lawmakers frustrated at the mounting attempts to keep debt cancellation from reaching borrowers.
New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. wrote on Twitter on Saturday that if “you’re one of the 23,000,000 working Americans who’ve applied for relief, republicans are trying to block your debt forgiveness because they think they’re better than you and don’t care if they ruin your life.”
—Bill Pascrell, Jr. 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@BillPascrell) October 22, 2022
And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on Twitter on Friday that “Republicans are using every trick they can to block President Biden’s student debt relief action.”
“But the law is on our side, and we will keep fighting for the millions of Americans with student debt,” he said.
In the midst of this temporary stay, along with legal challenges from at least five other conservative groups, Biden’s administration has maintained that borrowers should keep applying for up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness through the online form at studentaid.gov. When speaking on the rollout of the relief at Delaware State University on Friday, Biden said that over 22 million borrowers have already applied — and he criticized the Republicans who want to block that relief from being implemented.
Republicans “are doing everything they can deny this relief to even their own constituents,” Biden said. “As soon as I announced my administration’s plan on student debt, they started attacking it, saying all kinds of things. Their outrage is wrong, it’s hypocritical, and you know, we’re not letting them get away with it.”
While Republican lawmakers say they will continue to support challenges to Biden’s debt relief, it’s unclear at this point whether any of the lawsuits will prevail. On Tuesday, a judge is set to hear arguments for a lawsuit filed by The Job Creators Network, a conservative group that argued Biden violated the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice-and-comment procedure, which requires an unelected administrator to justify rulemaking to the public. For now, borrowers can keep applying for the relief as they wait for a decision from the 8th Circuit on whether it will continue to pause Biden’s plan, or dismiss the case.
“Amidst Republicans’ efforts to block our debt relief program, we are moving full speed ahead to be ready to deliver relief to borrowers who need the help,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona previously said.