President Biden is reportedly set to launch a second attempt to wipe out a massive amount of student loan debt for millions of Americans after his first effort was blocked by the Supreme Court last year.
The Biden administration has already eliminated $143.6 billion in student loan debt for nearly four million Americans since the president took office despite pushback from Republicans.
The Wall Street Journal reports Biden will outline his latest proposal to cancel student loan debt during a trip to Madison, Wisconsin on Monday where he will highlight the administrations range of efforts to forgive student loans.
The new regulations are set to be issued as soon as next week.
An Education Department officials had no comment on the report.
It comes ahead of the busy general election season where the president is looking at a tough rematch with former President Trump.
Critics have accused the Biden administration of leaning in on student loan debt forgiveness in an election year as a way to court young voters.
Biden speaking in California in February after the White House announced the cancellation of $1.2 billion in student loan debt under the SAVE plan
The Biden administration has canceled nearly $144 billion in student loan debt despite the Supreme Court blocking the president’s first student loan forgiveness plan
Last June, the Supreme Court blocked the president’s original plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of borrowers making less than $25,000 a year.
But the Biden administration said they were not done with their fight to bring relief to millions of borrowers and began working through the much more lengthy regulation process on ways to cancel debt.
The proposed regulation is expected to outline several categories that would qualify borrowers for relief, the Wall Street Journal reported including financial hardship or a path for those who have carried the debt for decades.
Just months after the highest court blocked Biden’s first student debt plan, the administration also launched the Saving on a Valuable Education or SAVE plan.
The SAVE plan is an income drive repayment plan that cuts down on the amount to time and money some borrowers have to pay before their student loan debt is forgiven.
In February, the administration began canceling billions in debt under the SAVE plan including $1.2 billion for 153,000 borrowers.
The White House said more than 7.7 million borrowers have enrolled in the plan and were encouraging millions more to do so.
The Education Department said it would continue to identify borrowers who qualify for their debt to be forgiven on a continuing basis.
On March 28, 11 states led by Kansas filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to block the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program. The lawsuit argued that the effort is no different than the first attempt by the president to wipe out student loan debt which was rejected by the Supreme Court.
Kansas Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach vowed to take the case all the way back to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Along with Kansas, the suit is backed by Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.
Republicans are already blasting the report that Biden will launch a second attempt for massive student loan forgiveness.
‘Millions have worked very hard to pay off their student loans. Now Biden is adding insult to injury by making these same people pay off the student loans of others,’ wrote Trump senior adviser Jason Miller on X ‘It’s not fair.’
Last June, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration had overstepped its authority with its plan which relied on the HEROES Act, a law that authorizes the Education Secretary to waive or modify federal student loans due to a national emergency.
The same day it was blocked, Biden said the administration would pursue debt forgiveness through a different legal authority in the Higher Education Act of 1965.
More than 43 million Americans carry more than $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt.