Policy- The White House is considering extending the student-loan payment pause again, per The Washington Post.
- This comes as Biden's debt relief is on pause after federal courts blocked its implementation.
Student-loan borrowers might not have to resume payments in January after all.
Over the past week, President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan has suffered significant legal setbacks. On Thursday, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the president's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans is illegal, in response to a lawsuit filed by two borrowers who didn't qualify for the full amount of relief. And on Monday, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the temporary stay on Biden's debt relief will remain in effect, siding with the six Republican-led states who sued over the debt cancellation because it would hurt their states' tax revenues.
Given that these legal proceedings could take months, extending into the new year, calls to extend the student-loan payment pause beyond December 31 have been amplifying. The Washington Post reported on Monday that White House officials are considering another extension, according to two people familiar with the matter who stressed that no final decisions have been made.
"As the legal vulnerability has become clearer and clearer, the White House has been making increasingly firm plans to extend the loan repayment pause," one of the people familiar with the matter told the Post. "The extension we're likely to see is meant to make sure borrowers don't have the rug pulled out from under them, rather than an indefinite replacement for loan forgiveness."
While the White House indicated in August that the extension of the pause through December 31 would be "final," it also anticipated that payments would resume in conjunction with the implementation of debt relief.
Advocates have also been calling on Biden to extend the student-loan payment pause. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told Insider that "alongside an appeal in this case, the administration should also consider further mechanisms to promote fairness, including a delay in the resumption of loan payments next year."
And the AFL-CIO Director of Government Affairs Bill Samuel told Insider that "borrowers who have filed for forgiveness should not have to wonder if they will once again be forced to live with crushing student loan debt as a result of a court challenge."
"With the payment pause end date of Dec. 31 rapidly approaching, the AFL-CIO will continue to advocate for the full implementation of the Biden administration's student loan debt cancellation plan," he said.
Over 26 million student-loan borrowers have already applied for debt relief, and while the Education Department is not accepting any new applications during these legal battles, it said it will hold onto borrowers' information so it can quickly process the relief "once we prevail in court."