Skip to main content

Biden Announces Student Debt Relief Measures After Court Setback

President Joe Biden said Friday that millions of Americans are "angry" after the Supreme Court brought down his student loan forgiveness program but he announced new measures to ease the financial burden.

"I know there are millions of Americans in this country who feel disappointed and discouraged or even a little bit angry," Biden said. "I must admit I do too."

Biden announced measures to "provide student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible, as quickly as possible."

One measure is a 12-month pause on penalties for missing debt repayments on federal loans used by many students to finance their time in the notoriously expensive US higher education system.

This will "protect the most vulnerable borrowers," the White House said.

Another is a change to repayment plans by the Department of Education, with a cut in the percentage of borrower's available income that must be paid each month toward loans from 10 to five percent.

In addition, borrowers would see more of their income protected from having to be made available for repayments.

The court decision was not a surprise, given challenges to the presidential authority to issue sweeping loan forgiveness.

However, it was still a political setback for Biden, who is seeking to increase state support for the poor.

The White House emphasized that Biden had already expanded the longstanding Pell Grant program to help finance the poorest college applicants and also sought to revamp existing loan forgiveness programs for groups like public service workers.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/REdXoZ4

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

US Power Firm Admits It May Have Sparked Texas' Largest Wildfire Ever

A US power company admitted Thursday that its equipment may have sparked the largest wildfire in Texas' history. Xcel -- the parent of Southwest Public Service Company, which provides electricity to part of the state -- said it was working with officials investigating the cause of the blaze that charred more than a million acres (over 400,000 hectares). "Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire," the company said. Hundreds of homes are thought to have been destroyed in the fire, which is known to have killed at least two people and over 3,000 farm animals. Xcel, which is facing at least one lawsuit, denied its equipment was improperly maintained. "However, we encourage people who had property destroyed by, or livestock lost in, the Smokehouse Creek fire to submit a claim to Xcel Energy through our claims process," the statement said. The W

It's Official, Kamala Harris Is Democratic Candidate For US Election

US Vice President Kamala Harris effectively secured the Democratic party's presidential nomination Friday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November's showdown against Republican Donald Trump. Kamala Harris was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates. She will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month. "I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States," Kamala Harris, 59, said on a phone-in to a party celebration after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon vote. In the two weeks since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, Kamala Harris has gained full control of the party. No other Democrats stepped forward to challenge her elevation to the top of the ticket, making her confirmation as the first Black and South Asian woman ever to secure a major party's nomination a formality. The a

All You Need To Know About Donald Trump's 1st Criminal Trial

Donald Trump goes on trial Monday for allegedly covering up hush money payments to hide affairs ahead of the 2016 presidential election which propelled him into the White House. He will become the first former US president to go on criminal trial when jury selection begins next week. Here are the key questions ahead of the landmark trial: What is Trump accused of? As Trump closed in on victory in the 2016 presidential election, adult film star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged 2006 sexual tryst with Trump. The payments, made by Trump's lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, were revealed by The Wall Street Journal in January 2018. Prosecutors have seized on the concealment of the payments as "legal fees" in the Trump Organization's accounts when Cohen was reimbursed as the heart of their case. Prosecutors say Trump "concealed the reason for these payments... which clearly were paid in order to influence voters," former prosec