Two cases that challenge President Joe Biden student loans forgiveness program are scheduled for the Supreme Court to hear arguments this month.
The White House released data state-by-state of approximately 26 million Americans who applied for debt relief prior to the application closing late last year. This comes a month before the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases challenging President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.
Bidens student loans relief application was only open for a month, but the administration took it down after legal challenges.
More than 26 million student loan borrowers had been able to submit applications before that. According to the most recent White House data, nearly 16.5 million of these applications were approved and sent to loan servicers for discharging.
California and Texas, two of the most populous states in the country, had the highest number of applicants and forms approved. Wyoming and Alaska had the lowest.
Biden Student Loans Forgiveness – Applicants That Are Automatically Deemed Eligible
This interactive map displays the states with the highest number of applicants.
The Department of Education began notifying millions of borrowers in late November that their loan relief applications had been approved. The court challenged the program, and the department couldn’t discharge loans.
Also Read: Commercial Loan Truerate Services
Below is an interactive map showing how many students in each state have approved their student loan debt relief applications.
Biden Student Loans Forgiveness – Approved Applications
The Biden administration published data in the fall showing how many borrowers were eligible for student loan relief by state. California, Florida, and New York – states with higher populations, Texas included – are expected to have the highest number of student loan borrowers.
In the majority of states, at least half of the borrowers who expected to apply to forgive loans were able to do so before the application was closed.
President Biden stated last week that his administration was “confident that Biden student loans relief plan is fully legal.”
On February 28, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the following cases regarding the program: one from six Republican-led States and the second from two individual borrowers who did not qualify for the maximum $20,000. Biden’s administration argued that no group of challengers had the legal capacity to sue the program.
Student loan payments and interest accrual are still on hold as of Feb 2nd. The freeze will only lift once the pending legal challenges are resolved within 60 days or at the close of August if no resolution is reached by June.