Biden touts 'making progress reducing student debt' but doesn't call out the lawsuits blocking his broad loan forgiveness plan during the State of the Union

• Biden touted "reducing student debt" during his State of the Union address.
• He did not mention the ongoing lawsuits that have blocked his broad student-loan forgiveness plan.

President Joe Biden chose to leave the lawsuits blocking his student-loan forgiveness plan out of his second State of the Union address.

On Tuesday night, Biden traveled to the Capitol to tout the economic progress his administration has made over the course of the pandemic, along with his efforts to tackle immigration, wealth disparities, and the climate crisis, among other things. When it comes to education, the president addressed increasing pay for teachers and providing two years of free community college, but he didn't have much to say about student debt.

"Let's give public school teachers a raise," Biden said during his remarks. "And we're making progress by reducing student debt and increasing Pell Grants for working- and middle-class families."

At the end of August, Biden announced a plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for Pell Grant recipients making under $125,000 a year, and up to $10,000 in student debt for other federal borrowers under the same income cap. But in October, the implementation of the relief was halted due to two conservative-backed lawsuits seeking to permanently halt the plan, and the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in those cases on February 28.

One of the lawsuits was filed by six Republican-led states who argued the debt relief would hurt their tax revenues, along with the revenue of student-loan company MOHELA, and the other lawsuit was brought on by two student-loan borrowers who sued because they did not qualify for the full $20,000 amount of relief. While Biden did not mention the litigation during his Tuesday night address, he has criticized the lawsuits frequently over the past few months.

"Look, the opponents suing to stop my plan are the only thing standing between millions of Americans' crushing student debt and relief," he wrote on Twitter last month. "It's frustrating, and I won't stop fighting to get it done in the courts."

While Biden did not elaborate on his efforts "reducing student debt" during his speech, the issue went completely unmentioned his State of the Union address last year, reflecting its growing prominence on his agenda since that last speech. While his broad debt relief plan has been blocked, he has taken steps to reform burdensome programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and income-driven repayment plans, along with enacting group discharges of student loans for borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools.

Still, Republican lawmakers have vowed to use their slim majority in the House to push back on Biden's higher education programs. During the State of the Union, the GOP members of the House education committee criticized the president's claims, writing on Twitter that "@POTUS wants you to pay your fair share. Under his student loan scheme, 50% of debt for the average borrower will be paid off by taxpayers, many who never went to college."

Over half of House Republicans and nearly all GOP senators also filed amicus briefs to the Supreme Court opposing Biden's plan — joining a swath of other briefs from conservative groups, liberal organizations, advocates, and legal experts voicing their opinions on student-loan forgiveness to the nation's highest court.