The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis ruled in favor of six Republican states (Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina) to temporarily block Biden’s student loan forgiveness
Just when it looked like President Joe Biden’s historic student loan forgiveness would go smoothly, the first stone stands in the way. The 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion on Friday to temporarily block the government’s delivery plan for millions of students.
The St. Louis-based appeals court ruled in favor of six Republican-led states that have asked that Biden’s estimated $500 billion surrender plan be halted while the court processes their request for an injunction. judicial.
In late August, the Biden administration announced with great fanfare a historic $10,000 federal student loan forgiveness for all low-income eligibles and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. Unfortunately, at the very least, borrowers in the states of Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina will have to wait and see if their debt will be forgiven.
The appeals court’s decision comes just days after the White House posted the online request for the brochure. President Biden said that the app portal took more than 8 million requests without a problem during its testing period, which was last weekend.
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, assured that the decision of the court of appeals is only a temporary block for the use and distribution of the resources provided for the forgiveness of the debt of millions of borrowers, but not limits the ability to continue receiving requests.
“We will continue to move full speed ahead in our preparations pursuant to this order. And the Administration will continue to fight Republican officials suing to block our efforts to provide relief to working families,” Jean-Pierre said. “Tonight’s temporary order does not prevent borrowers from applying for student debt relief on studentaid.gov, and we encourage eligible borrowers to join the nearly 22 million Americans whose information the Department of Education already has. It also does not prevent us from reviewing these applications and preparing them for transmission to loan servicers.”
Jean-Pierre also clarified that the order does not reverse the trial court’s dismissal of the case, when US District Judge Henry Autrey in St. Louis ruled that while the six Republican-led states had posed “significant challenges and significant to the debt relief plan”, dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that they lacked the necessary legal capacity to pursue the case.
However, the appeals court’s request is only to prevent the debt from being discharged until the court makes a decision.
“As millions of people apply, we’ll make sure the system continues to work as smoothly as possible so we can provide student loan relief to millions of Americans as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Biden said. student loan brochure at Delaware State University on Friday. “I want to make it clear who will benefit the most workers. Middle class people. More than 40 million Americans will benefit from this relief.”