The White House is examining ways for President Biden to forgive some student loan debt through executive action — at least $10,000 per borrower — including a plan that would limit relief to undergraduate borrowers who earn less than $125,000 or $150,000 as individuals or $250,000 or $300,000 as a couple, according to a new report.
Sources told the Washington Post that no final decision has been made on the figure that will be forgiven, the income cap, or other specifics of the plan.
Ninety-seven percent of all student debt was held by people earning less than $150,000 as individuals or less than $300,000 as a couple in 2019, the report notes, citing data from Matt Bruenig, the founder of the left-leaning think tank the People’s Policy Project.
The news comes after Biden told reporters this week that the amount he would consider forgiving would be less than $50,000 per person, which is the figure that progressive members of the president’s party have advocated for.
“There’s different proposals floating around the administration about how to structure this,” one source involved in the discussions reportedly told the Washington Post. “Over the course of the past week especially, administration and congressional staff have focused the conversation on debt cancellation on how to best meet the president’s desire to ensure the most economically vulnerable people with student debt benefit from any action.”
Biden said earlier this week that he is taking a “hard look” at the issue and expects to reach a decision “in the next couple of weeks.”
A White House spokesman confirmed to the Washington Post that the administration is weighing what paths can be taken to forgive student debt and noted that Biden has long supported cutting $10,000 in student debt through legislation that would be passed by Congress, not through executive action.
The spokesman added that continuing the Trump-era pause on federal student loan payments has saved tens of billions for 41 million student borrowers.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) claimed earlier this month that the pause “ain’t enough” and suggested the White House is closer “than ever before” to canceling student debt.
“I have talked personally to the president on this issue a whole bunch of times. I have told him that this is more important than just about anything else that he can do on his own,” the New York Democrat told the State of Student Debt Summit during a virtual event, according to The Hill.
Schumer has called on the president to cancel up to $50,000 in student debt per borrower. He suggested at the time that is what the Biden administration will ultimately agree to.
“We want our young people to realize that they can have a good future,” Schumer said. “One of the best, very best, top-of-the-list ways to do it is by canceling student debt, by getting rid of the $50,000, even going higher after that.”
Republicans and moderate Democrats have been wary of student loan forgiveness, suggesting the cost would be an unfair burden for taxpayers, many of whom either did not attend college or did not accrue large loans. Canceling $10,000 in debt for every student borrower would cost roughly $245 billion, according to data from the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget cited by the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, the poorest 20 percent of Americans hold just 8 percent of the nation’s total student debt, according to the People’s Policy Project.