Education Secretary Miguel Cardona says the department is 'moving full speed ahead' to implement student debt relief despite an appeals court temporarily blocking the plan

• Miguel Cardona says student debt relief is "moving full speed" despite a temporary hold on the plan.
• Cardona in an USA Today op-ed criticized GOP efforts to block President Biden's plan for borrowers.

US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a Saturday opinion article said that his department was "moving full speed ahead" to implement the student debt relief program championed by President Joe Biden, with the message coming a day after a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the plan from taking effect while it is being examined.

Cardona reaffirmed the administration's support for the student-loan forgiveness plan in the USA Today op-ed, while also pushing for eligible applicants to continue applying for the plan.

"Amid some Republicans trying every which way to block the Biden Administration's debt relief program, the department is moving full speed ahead with preparations for the lawful implementation of our program so we can deliver relief to borrowers who need it most," he wrote. "Already, 22 million people have provided the department with the necessary information we need to review their eligibility for student debt relief."

In framing the debt relief plan as one that would benefit working and middle-class families, Cardona criticized efforts by several Republican attorneys general to invalidate Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan.

"In seven states, Republican attorneys general and officials have sued to block this effort — leaving the financial security of tens of millions of working and middle-class Americans to hang in the balance," he wrote. "Despite their efforts, some cases have been dismissed."

US District Judge Henry Edward Autrey on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit from the GOP attorneys general in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Carolina, in addition to legal representatives in Iowa, which argued that the forgiveness plan would harm the states' tax revenue, along with the business operations of MOHELA, a Missouri-based student-loan company.

Autrey in his ruling argued that MOHELA is independent of the states and can take legal action over the plan on its own.

"Missouri has not met its burden to show that it can rely on harms allegedly suffered by MOHELA," the opinion said. "MOHELA can sue and be sued in its own name and retains financial independence from the state."

Also on Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett dismissed a request by a Wisconsin group to stop Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan; the group in their lawsuit claimed that the president exceeded his constitutional authority in crafting the policy without congressional approval.

But on Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an administrative stay, which temporarily blocks Biden's plan from going forward while the court reviews the program's legality.

After months of deliberations, the president in August announced that he would forgive $10,000 in federal student-loan debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 per year, with up to $20,000 in relief for those who received Pell grants and fall under the same income threshold. The plan would also cap monthly repayment of federal student loans at 5% of an individual's income through a new income-driven repayment plan.

Cardona stressed in the op-ed that about 90 percent of the plan's benefits would impact individuals with incomes under $75,000, per the Education Department.

"These are people in red states and blue states — teachers, nurses, hair stylists, veterans and home healthcare workers. Parents who took out loans so their kids could be the first in their family to go to college," he wrote.

"These are people with associate's degrees and technicians with certificates. These are people who will have the task of rebuilding our roads and bridges, and the same people Republicans promised to fight for when they were elected — but now they're suing to stop them from getting relief," he added.

The Biden administration also faces legal challenges from Arizona GOP Attorney General Mark Brnovich, the Job Creators Network Foundation, and the Cato Institute over its debt relief plan.