Last Updated: October 04, 2023, 17:12 IST
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
US President Joe Biden makes a statement about the stopgap government funding bill passed by the US House and Senate to avert a government shutdown at the White House in Washington, US. (Image: Reuters)
In the US, 46 million people have outstanding student loans totaling more than $1.6 trillion and Biden’s steps will help alleviate the crisis for some.
US President Joe Biden will announce new steps Wednesday to help people affected by the Supreme Court’s cancelling of his student loan forgiveness program, the White House said.
Biden is to unveil $9 billion in debt relief for 125,000 people, the latest in a series of measures announced by the Democrat this week as he eyes re-election in 2024.
The messaging also comes as rival Republicans descend into vicious internal strife, ousting their own House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in an unprecedented move on Tuesday.
“President Biden has long believed that college should be a ticket to the middle class — not a burden that weighs on families,” a White House official said.
Repayments on federal student loans — 46 million people in the United States have outstanding student loans totaling more than $1.6 trillion — resumed in October after a pause that began with the Covid pandemic and the financial strains it caused.
This followed June’s ruling by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court striking down Biden’s ambitious plan to cancel more than $400 billion of student debt.
Biden quickly announced at the time that he would repackage his student loan relief program.
The Supreme Court, featuring three judges appointed by Biden’s likely 2024 rival, Donald Trump, has moved sharply to the right in recent years, notably with last year’s landmark overturning of the federal right to abortion.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)
