The White House has halted applications for the US student loan forgiveness program due to an order from a Texas judge. The Department of Justice is already appealing that decision.

The White House, or the administration led by US President Joe Biden, has halted applications for student loan forgiveness due to a court ruling last Thursday night. On the Studentaid.gov website, a note explains the situation: “The courts have issued an order to block our student debt relief program. Therefore, at this time, we are not accepting applications. We are looking to reverse these orders.”

The temporary suspension of the student loan forgiveness program comes shortly after a federal judge in Texas rejected executive action by Joe Biden to write off up to $20,000 of student debt for millions of Americans.

Judge Mark Pittman, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, made the decision assuring that the country “is not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a telephone,” according to a review by the television network. CNBC news, which indicated that Pittman has as an ally the conservative group Job Creators Network Foundation.

This group, in fact, indicated that Joe Biden’s plan was “irrational, arbitrary and unfair”, and accused the US president of exceeding his authority, ensuring that the White House ignored federal procedures by not requesting public comments on the program. student loan forgiveness.

For its part, the Joe Biden administration indicated that the Department of Justice has already begun the appeal process against the court’s decision.

The program was officially launched on October 17, and 3 weeks later, at least 26 million people had applied for student loan forgiveness. According to CNBC, to date, at least 16 million such requests have been approved.

For now, though, the program has only said it will keep applications from consumers who have already applied for student debt relief.

Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Education, said in a public statement that the student loan forgiveness program is, in his opinion, within the parameters of the law and that it is necessary “to give borrowers and working families a little while they recover from the pandemic and can resume payments. Despite efforts to block the program, we will not stop.”

For his part, Mark Kantrowitz, an education expert, told CNBC that lenders should wait to see what happens, as the Department of Education is in the process of appealing. Giving a little hope to millions of borrowers who were counting on this relief, Kantrowitz opined that “there are many aspects of the Texas court order that are unusual, which can result in a successful appeal.”

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