Biden makes final push for student loan forgiveness before Trump takes office

President Biden is making a last-ditch effort to cancel more student debt before the end of his term, after facing years of setbacks in his attempts to erase billions of dollars in borrowed money.The Department of Education announced an interim final rule this month to extend the deadline for student loan borrowers to enroll in long-term pay-over-time programs.The provision would amend the Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) to extend the deadline for borrowers to enroll in ICR or Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), a program which cancels all student debt for borrowers after 20 years of on-time payments.The enrollment deadline would be extended by three years, from July 2024 to July 2027.The regulations, however, are slated to go into effect in July 2026, meaning the incoming Trump administration could intercept any handout initiatives going into effect after his term.The announcement comes just weeks after the Biden administration put forward an additional new rule, that, if finalized, would authorize student debt forgiveness on a one-time basis for people who the department considers to have at least an 80% chance of defaulting on loans based on a “predictive assessment using existing borrower data.”Also in October, the administration announced plans to remove $4.5 billion in debt for more than 60,000 borrowers who work in public service.During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden pledged to forgive student loans for millions of Americans if elected, but the president has faced continuous legal roadblocks in his attempt to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.Biden’s initial plan sought to provide up to $10,000 in debt relief, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, for people who make less than $125,000 a year — which was estimated to cost more than $400 billion. However, in June 2023, the Supreme Court issued a ruling against Biden’s loan cancelation plans which stated that the secretary of education cannot cancel more than $430 billion in stu...