What Democrats want Biden to do on student loans before leaving office

Some Democratic lawmakers are pressuring the Biden administration to take further action on student loans before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, including finalizing some debt forgiveness it already approved.

Some Democratic lawmakers are pressuring the Biden administration to take further action on student loans before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, including finalizing some debt forgiveness it already approved. Trump hasn’t made specific promises on student loans, but canceling debt isn’t a policy priority like it has been for President Joe Biden, who has approved the discharge of more student debt than any other president despite a major blow by the Supreme Court decision to strike down his key proposal last year. Many Republicans have slammed Biden’s efforts to provide broad student debt relief as unfair, shifting the cost to taxpayers who decided not to go to college or have already paid for their education. Much of the debt relief Biden ultimately approved was targeted to specific groups of borrowers and delivered via student loan forgiveness programs that predated his administration. But there’s concern from Democrats that some borrowers, particularly those who were defrauded by their schools, are still waiting for the debt discharge that the Biden administration approved. “These borrowers set out to pursue the American dream, but instead of earning a diploma that unlocked the doors of possibility, they found themselves being shackled with a worthless degree and the burden of student loan debt,” Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said at a press conference about student debt earlier this month.