The Biden administration has quietly issued a directive that makes an estimated 800,000 student loan borrowers ineligible for President Joe Biden’s giveaway to college students and graduates.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the U.S. Department of Education altered its website to announce that borrowers who took out federal student loans that are not managed by the department cannot obtain the “one-time debt relief” Biden seeks to provide.
Biden announced in August that borrowers who make up to $125,000 a year, or couples who rake in $250,000, could have up to $10,000 of their loans erased. Those who received Pell Grants could count on not paying back up to $20,000.
Biden’s generosity with taxpayers’ money will shift the burden to repay the loans from borrowers to all taxpayers, who according to analysts must pay between $400 billion and $1 trillion to cover Biden’s giveaway.
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The Free Beacon noted that until last week borrowers who had received Perkins loans or Federal Family Education Loans, a program that expired more than a decade ago, could consolidate those balances under the government’s Direct Loans program.
Those loans were issued and managed by private lenders but were backed by the federal government.
Now, however, those types of loans no longer qualify under Biden’s plan.
NPR, which also reported on the administration’s shift, noted, “It’s unclear why the department reversed its decision on allowing FFEL borrowers with commercially-held loans to consolidate and then qualify for debt relief.”
But the network cited one possible reason.
An administration official told NPR that the Education Department wanted “to provide relief to as many eligible borrowers as quickly and easily as possible,” but that it had to do so within “legally-available options” for borrowers with FFEL and Perkins loans.
NPR explained that private banks with those old FFEL loans still on their books could sue the administration and claim Biden’s plan would rob them of due income.
The official also threw those borrowers under the bus, noting that, unlike until last week, the FFEL program “is now defunct and only a small percentage of borrowers have FFEL loans.” Although they may be a “small percentage,” the official noted the change affects about 800,000 borrowers.
The Free Beacon noted that, to NPR’s point, the administration made the change on the same day six Republican-led states sued Biden over the plan. Those states include Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina.
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