Biden is reportedly planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt for borrowers making under $150,000
- Biden is planning $10,000 in student-debt relief for those making under $150,000, per The Washington Post.
- The income threshold is a slight increase from the previously reported $125,000.
The latest reports show President Joe Biden sticking to his original campaign pledge to forgive $10,000 in student debt per borrower — but with limits.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that, according to three people familiar with the matter, Biden's latest loan forgiveness plan include $10,000 in relief for federal borrowers who make under $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples who filed jointly. This income threshold is slightly higher than previous reports that suggested Biden was considering capping the relief for those making under $125,000.
"No decisions have been made yet," White House spokesperson Vedant Patel told the Post.
While the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week Biden had hoped to make an announcement regarding student-loan forgiveness while delivering a commencement speech at the University of Delaware on Saturday, White House officials told the Post that timeline has been pushed back due to the shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Borrowers have been on edge waiting to hear if they will see a cut to their debt balances. Biden said nearly a month ago that a decision on relief would be made in the coming weeks, and the only certainty he gave to the public was that he was not considering $50,000 in relief — an amount many progressive lawmakers have been pushing for. And even with the reports suggesting a lower amount of relief with income caps, they haven't stopped pushing.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, and Raphael Warnock met with Biden last week to urge him to go big on relief and hold off on issuing any executive action until he considers loan forgiveness for everyone.
"My message is that we need to do student debt cancellation and we can't do it soon enough," Warnock said on Tuesday. "And it needs to be large and significant enough to make a difference in the lives of hardworking Georgia families."
While many Republican lawmakers have slammed the idea of broad student-loan relief, arguing it would benefit the higher earners the most, some Democrats have criticized cutting high earners out of relief, which Biden is considering. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez previously told the Post that she doesn't' "believe in a cutoff, especially for so many of the front-line workers who are drowning in debt and would likely be excluded from relief."
Still, the plans for relief could likely change, and the timeline for that announcement remains uncertain — but as several administration officials have said, borrowers will know before student-loan payments are set to resume after August 31.