Kamala Harris Vows to ‘Defend’ Student Loan Plan After Supreme Court Blow

Vice President Kamala Harris vowed to keep “fighting” for student debt forgiveness after the Supreme Court declined to reinstate the Biden administration’s latest plan to cancel loans for millions of borrowers.
Over a dozen Republican-led states have sued the federal government over the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, arguing that it will cost at least $475 billion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the loan forgiveness plan will cost $276 billion.
Now, Justices have struck down a request from the Justice Department to lift an order from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate President Joe Biden’s plan, which was unveiled by the White House last year after the Supreme Court rejected Biden’s more ambitious student loan relief plan that would have forgiven up to $20,000 in debt for millions of Americans.
In an unsigned order Wednesday, the Supreme Court said it anticipates the 8th Circuit Appeals Court to provide a fuller decision on the SAVE plan “with appropriate dispatch.” Student loan forgiveness was a key factor in Biden’s campaign in 2020, and Harris has said that she would continue the president’s approach to debt relief if elected in November.
“@POTUS and I have canceled nearly $170 billion in student debt for almost 5 million Americans,” Harris wrote to X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday evening. “We are also fighting to defend our SAVE Plan, which has lowered payments for millions of Americans. We won’t stop fighting to build an economy that works for every American.”
The SAVE plan intends to offer borrowers relief by lowering the required monthly payments on federal loans from 10 percent to 5 percent of a person’s discretionary income. Those who earn less than 225 percent of the federal poverty line, which is set at $32,800 a year, would not be required to make payments on loans. The plan would also allow loan balances of $12,000 or less to be cleared after 10 years of on-time payments.
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction on the SAVE plan earlier this summer, which was briefly halted after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Department of Education could move forward with lowering borrowers’ monthly payments. Judges on the 8th Circuit then again ordered a stay on the entire program in July.
Biden’s administration said in April that nearly 8 million people had enrolled in the SAVE plan and that 4.5 million borrowers have monthly payments of $0.
The president has rolled out several rounds of loan forgiveness despite facing some legal roadblocks, including in July, when the White House announced that it was forgiving $1.2 billion in debts for thousands of borrowers who work in public service. The Department of Education estimates that the Biden administration has canceled about $167 billion in loans for over 4 million people.