• President Joe Biden’s key plans for sweeping student debt relief are blocked in court.
• Neither former President Trump nor Vice President Kamala Harris could act on them imminently.
• Harris supports Biden’s efforts and would likely continue more targeted aid efforts if she were to win the election.

Millions of federal student loan borrowers remain in the a debt relief language that the elections will not be resolved immediately.

That’s because President Joe Biden’s latest attempt to grant a broad exemption is being blocked in court by a lawsuit from GOP-led states. Vice President Kamala Harris said she supports Biden’s efforts, but if he wins, he won’t have the option to move forward until the court reaches a decision. Former President Donald Trump opposed the pardon altogether and called for the Department of Education to be abolished.

Despite his inability to provide broad cancellation, Biden’s Department of Education has issued targeted relief that has so far given debt cancellation to nearly 5 million borrowers.

Undersecretary for Education James Kvaal has been working on these efforts since 2021, seeking to improve a higher education system that relies heavily on student loans.

He told Business Insider that transitioning to a new administration’s priorities will be “a race for sticks.” He hopes the next president will continue his work of thinking beyond mere relief.

“We need to make sure we’re running our student loan programs in a way that protects students from being left with unaffordable debt,” he said. “But we also need to invest in making those programs affordable to begin with, and then making sure those programs reliably lead to graduation and a job.”

The issue was hardly mentioned by the presidential candidates — drowned out by concerns about the economy, immigrationand taxes. It’s a big change from 2020 elections when candidates made ambitious campaign promises. That’s likely because polls show it’s not a top issue for voters. Just 18% of respondents said student debt relief would impact their vote on a May bank rate studyand a more separate one study AP-NORC found that only three in 10 adults approved of Biden’s actions on the issue.

With more than 40 million Americans still carrying student loan balances of about $38,000 on average, preventing them from buying homes, starting a family or saving for retirement, any future president has limited motivations — or options – for a wide exemption.

Without a broad repeal, Biden cut aid to targeted groups of borrowers

Despite widespread gridlock, Biden’s Department of Education has spent the past four years making a number of changes to aid programs, such as Public service loan forgiveness, defense of the borrower upon repayment for defrauded borrowers and the rule of paid workwhich ensures that a borrower’s debt does not accumulate after they graduate.

The department also implemented a new income-based repayment plan, SAVE, designed to lower monthly payments and offer a shorter grace period. The plan has been blocked in court since July following challenges from GOP-led states, and 8 million enrolled borrowers won’t have to make payments for at least six months as the Education Department works to reprogram its systems and to adjust repayment plans for those affected. debtors.

Some borrowers have lost hope. Constance, 65, has nearly $200,000 in student debt, an amount that has grown since she graduated from law school in 1994. Constance — who asked to go by her first name for privacy — has gone through in which the expenses of her children occupied the greater part. her salary. She defaulted on her student loans, meaning she didn’t make payments but accrued interest.

“It’s out of control right now and there’s no way I can pay,” Constance said.

She’s disappointed because she would probably qualify for Biden the second attempt at broader student debt reliefwhich was blocked in court.

Specifically, the plan would write off up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers whose balances have ballooned due to unpaid interest and provide relief for borrowers who first entered repayment at least 20 years ago.

On October 25, the Department of Education unveiled a separate proposal to provide relief to borrowers face long-term financial difficulties that prevent them from repaying their loans, including the challenges of high childcare or health care costs. The department expects to complete the plan in 2025 and has not commented on how a future administration might impact aid.

Sara Partridge, associate director for higher education policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress Action Fund, told BI it’s hard to predict what relief will come for student loan borrowers because legal challenges remain.

“We’ll probably have to see how the current case against the Plan B rule plays out to better understand what exactly is possible going forward,” Partridge said.

Kvaal said that before that, he wants to focus how the country finances higher education. He also said borrowers should expect more action on regulating the student loan industry, pointing to the Department of Education’s restructuring of servicing contracts over the past year. These changes allowed the department to process debt relief applications more quickly and implement more protections for borrowers to ensure their suppliers meet their contractual obligations.

Harris vs. Trump on student loans

Even though both Harris and Trump have offered minimal details on how they will tackle student debt, Partridge said it’s helpful to look back at their past actions.

“I would expect continued improvements and limited extensions of debt relief where legally possible under the Harris-Walz administration,” Partridge said.

She said the Trump administration “has not taken any major steps” to fix longstanding problems such as delays in public service loan forgiveness and borrower defense applications. Borrowers shouldn’t expect a broad cut or reform if Trump wins the election. He also praised the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Biden’s debt relief.

The makeup of Congress will also impact what is in store for student loan borrowers — Republican control would mean that previously introduced legislation to prevent the exemption could be signed into law.

“Where’s the forgiveness for the guy who didn’t go to college but works to pay off the loan on the truck he drives to work? But the woman who paid off her student loans but is now struggling to afford her mortgage Is the administration giving them help, of course not,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Education Committee.

Regardless of who wins the election, legal challenges to debt relief will keep borrowers in limbo. Kvaal said the fight is not over, and the Biden administration will work to provide relief under his authority as long as it can.

“He went out of his way to help the borrowers,” Kvaal said. “We are currently fighting in court to provide more debt relief, but we are also taking dozens of actions that are not being challenged in court that have helped millions of borrowers.”