Biden Administration Approves Additional $4.9b In Student Debt Relief

US President Joe Biden has issued a statement confirming that his administration has authorised an additional USD$4.9bln in student debt relief.

• Biden: "Today, my Administration approved debt cancellation for another 74,000 student loan borrowers across the country, bringing the total number of people who have gotten their debt cancelled under my Administration to over 3.7 million Americans through various actions."
• CNBC notes that, "The Biden administration has now cancelled more than $136 billion in student debt for more than 3.7 million Americans," adding that Biden "vowed to cancel at least $10,000 of student debt per person," on the 2020 campaign trail.
• Biden's plan to cancel roughly USD$400bl in student debt - a vote winner at the 2022 midterm elections - was blocked by the Supreme Court in June 2023.
• SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts said in the June ruling: ″Can the Secretary use his powers to abolish $430 billion in student loans, completely canceling loan balances for 20 million borrowers, as a pandemic winds down to its end? We can’t believe the answer would be yes.”
• Finding an alternate route to debt relief, as Biden pledged in June following the SCOTUS ruling, could help Biden recapture young voters, a key bloc of the 2020 progressive alliance which is currently polling negatively for Biden.