Vice President Kamala Harris’s repeated assurances to cover the costs for debt holders encountered a setback on Thursday when a federal judge ordered a temporary halt on her student loan cancellation plans.
For months, Biden administration officials have been in legal battles with Republican attorneys general challenging the president’s plan to unilaterally cancel billions in unpaid student loans, a move critics have labeled as election-year bribery. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Randal Hall, a George W. Bush appointee, temporarily blocked the implementation of the cancellation plan for an additional 14 days.
The ruling complicates Harris’s pledge to cover the costs with less than 50 days until the election. Hall announced he would review the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction against the relief plan, NBC News reported. It’s also the latest in a string of setbacks for the Biden-Harris administration which has been lobbied by progressives to move aggressively to cancel student debt for millions of Americans.
Nationally, borrowers collectively owe $1.74 trillion in student loans, surpassing the $1.1 trillion in national credit card debt. Critics argue that legal debt contracts cannot be erased through executive order and question the fairness of requiring Americans who have already paid off their own loans to subsidize those who have not. According to NBC, the borrowers are categorized into four groups: those who owe more than their original loan amount, individuals who have been repaying their loans for decades, students from institutions with low financial value, and those eligible for loan forgiveness under existing programs but who have not yet applied.
Republican attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota, and Ohio initially filed a lawsuit challenging President Biden’s order, claiming it was an attempt to bypass a final ruling expected in October. The administration responded by stating to CNBC that the Department of Education will not proceed with the $147 billion in student loan forgiveness for 25 million Americans until it is legally permitted to do so.
During his September 10th debate against Harris, former President Donald Trump accused his Democratic rival of promising more than she can realistically deliver. “It’s just talk,” Trump said. “You know what it reminds me of? When they said they’re going to get student loans terminated and it ended up being a total catastrophe. They didn’t even come close to getting student loans. They taunted young people and a lot of other people that had loans. They can never get this approved.”