Biden races to enact new student loan forgiveness plan ahead of November

Washington CNN —

Biden administration officials on Monday unveiled the details of a new plan to forgive student loan debt, suggesting that millions of Americans could start seeing debt relief as soon as this fall.

The new set of proposals, which CNN reported on Friday, have yet to be finalized. It’s President Joe Biden’s second attempt to implement broad student loan forgiveness after his first plan was struck down by the Supreme Court last summer. The president traveled to Wisconsin on Monday — a key swing state this November — to announce the plan.

“While a college degree is still a ticket to the middle class, that ticket’s becoming much too expensive,” Biden said in remarks at a technical college in Madison.

“Too many people feel the strain and stress, wondering if they’re going to get married, have their first child, start a family. Because even if they get by, they still have this crushing, crushing debt. It’s not just a drag on them, it’s a drag on our local economies,” he added.

The new policies, when combined with the more narrow actions already taken by the Biden administration to cancel student debt, would benefit more than 30 million Americans, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House.

That means that nearly 70% of all federal student loan borrowers would see their debt reduced or fully canceled due to Biden’s policies.

But first, the plans must be finalized – a process that could take months – and must withstand any potential legal challenges.

Biden’s new student loan forgiveness proposals could set up another fight with Republicans. Several conservative-led states and groups sued the Biden administration over the first student forgiveness program, arguing that the executive branch