126 Democratic lawmakers reaffirm to Biden that they think his student-loan forgiveness plan is legal — and they 'expect the legal challenges to the plan will fail'

• 126 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Biden expressing support for his student-debt relief plan.
• It comes after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the cases blocking the relief.

Over 100 Democratic lawmakers want to make sure President Joe Biden knows they're on his side when it comes to student-debt relief.

On Tuesday, 126 lawmakers, led in part by Sens. Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar, sent a letter to Biden affirming their support for his plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers making under $125,000 a year.

After Biden announced the plan at the end of August, two conservative-backed lawsuits paused the implementation of the relief, and the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in both of the cases last week. His administration has continued to express confidence that the loan forgiveness is legal, and the group of Democratic lawmakers reiterated that they believe the "debt relief plan falls squarely within your administrative authority, we expect the legal challenges to the plan will fail, and 40 million Americans will be able to have their debts reduced or eliminated as they return to repayment."

"Through your action, approximately 20 million borrowers will have no remaining balance, and nearly 90 percent of relief dollars will go to those earning less than $75,000 a year," they wrote. "In the less than 4 weeks that the application for debt relief was available and before the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) was required to stop accepting applications as a result of lawsuits from opponents of the program, 26 million people applied to the Department to be deemed eligible for relief."

They also cited recent data from the Education Department that reflected how the relief will benefit the lowest-income earners, along with benefitting communities of color.

Since Biden's debt relief plan was announced, many Republican lawmakers attacked that relief as unfair, costly, and an overreach of executive authority.

"How will canceling #studentloans for wealthy elites help working class Americans (many of whom never event went to college or have student debt) when they are already struggling to put food on the table and gas in the tank?" Republicans on the House education committee wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

Some Republicans have also recently introduced legislation to end the student-loan payment pause and block Biden from canceling student debt broadly. While that legislation is unlikely to progress to final votes, SoFi Bank — a student-loan refinancing company — filed a lawsuit on Friday to end the student-loan payment pause, citing revenue losses it said was directly cause by the latest payment pause extension.

In light of the ongoing litigation, Biden extended the student-loan payment pause through 60 days after June 30, or 60 days after the Supreme Court issues a final decision on the legality of Biden's relief, whichever happens first, and the Education Department has affirmed the payment pause's legality.

Still, as borrowers await the Supreme Court's decision, Democratic lawmakers have continued to voice support for Biden's plan, and the need to get relief to millions of borrowers before payments resume.

"The President has the legal authority to cancel student debt," Missouri Rep. Cori Bush wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. "The Supreme Court MUST uphold the law."