- The Education Department is testing its student-loan forgiveness application with some members of the general public.
- It also affirmed it will not cancel any student debt before October 23.
President Joe Biden's Education Department is working to ensure its application for student-loan forgiveness works before making it available to all borrowers.
Since Biden announced up to $20,000 in debt cancellation for federal borrowers making under $125,000 a year at the end of August, a number of questions arose surrounding the policy's implementation. The Education Department said that while around 8 million borrowers would automatically be eligible for debt relief, the majority would have to apply through an application that was set to become available in early October.
Now, however, it's looking like that timeline is being pushed back, possibly in response to a number of lawsuits filed by Republican groups attempting to block the policy. This week, a federal judge is hearing arguments from six Republican-led states who argued the debt cancellation will hurt their states' tax revenues, among other things, and Biden's administration recently filed its first legal defense of the plan in response to that case.
Along with defending the authority to enacted targeted loan forgiveness under the HEROES Act of 2003, which gives the Education Secretary the ability to modify student-loan balances in connection with COVID-19, the administration also said it will not cancel any student debt before October 23 and will test the application form "with members of the general public" before making it officially available. An administration official previously told Insider that there will be more details on the process in the coming days, and "we've got a dedicated team at the Department of Education working closely with a team here at the White House to get the program up and running."
Even before Biden announced the debt relief, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were concerned that borrowers would run into trouble during the implementation process due to potentially complicated paperwork and errors on the side of the student-loan companies. At the end of September, Democrats including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer even held a press conference to detail the importance of smooth and quick implementation of the debt relief.
"President Biden has made an investment that will lift the burden of millions of student loan borrowers shackled by exorbitant debt," Omar said. "This is an important step that will provide critical relief to millions of borrowers across the country. And we know for this to be as broad and effective as possible, the Administration must implement this relief as swiftly and efficiently, with minimal bureaucratic red tape, so that everyone eligible can access this critical relief."
The Education Department has affirmed that the process will be "smooth and simple," and borrowers will not need to upload any documents to verify their incomes.