Following President Biden’s latest action to cancel and reduce student loan debt for an additional 160,000 Americans, DNC National Press Secretary Nina Raneses released the following statement: 

“President Biden is continuing to deliver on his promise to provide student debt relief for millions of middle-class Americans, with his latest actions providing $7.7 billion in relief for an additional 160,000 borrowers. While President Biden continues to provide life-changing relief for hardworking Americans and uplift communities of color through debt cancellation, Republicans continue to push a MAGAnomics agenda that rigs the economy against the middle class. When voters head to the ballot box this November, they’ll remember that President Biden’s economic agenda is giving Americans a fair shot, unlike Trump’s plan to help out his Wall Street exec friends and special interest cronies.”

NEW: Thanks to President Biden, more than 160,000 Americans will have their student loans canceled — providing an additional $7.7 billion in relief for borrowers.

CNN: “The Biden administration on Wednesday announced the cancellation of an additional $7.7 billion in student loans for 160,000 Americans in its ongoing efforts to relieve soaring college debt.”

CBS News: “With the latest round of forgiveness, the administration has erased a total of $167 billion in student loans for 4.75 million people, or about 1 in 10 student loan borrowers, the Department of Education said.”

Bloomberg: “Individuals enrolled in the government’s income-driven repayment plans and public servants who have worked for at least a decade will benefit from the actions.”

Associated Press: “The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellation on Wednesday, saying it will erase $7.7 billion in federal student loans. With the latest action, the administration said it has canceled $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans through several programs.”

New York Times: “The steady drumbeat of loan forgiveness announcements from the White House this year has become a centerpiece of Mr. Biden’s re-election pitch, in which he has consistently described overcoming the cost of education as a primary hurdle for working families.”

President Biden has worked tirelessly to fulfill his promise of relief for borrowers — and he has already reduced and canceled more student debt than any other president in history.

CNN: “About 4 million people have seen their federal student debt canceled under Biden, totaling about $144 billion.”

The Guardian: “Biden launches ‘most affordable ever’ student loan repayment plan”

ABC News: “Biden’s new payment plan, known as the SAVE Plan, offers a faster path to forgiveness than earlier versions. More people are now becoming eligible for loan cancellation as they hit 10 years of payments, a new finish line that’s a decade sooner than what borrowers faced in the past.”

CNBC: “Including Wednesday’s round of relief, the Biden administration has so far excused the debt of 4.75 million borrowers, totaling $167 billion in aid. Much of that total comes from expanding the reach of and making fixes to these programs. Historically, borrowers found these aid options were hard if not impossible to navigate, and many complained they weren’t receiving the relief to which they were entitled, consumer advocates say.”

White House Fact Sheet: “President Biden will announce plans that, if finalized as proposed, would cancel up to $20,000 of the amount a borrower’s balance has grown due to unpaid interest on their loans after entering repayment, regardless of their income.”

President Biden has made higher education more accessible to historically underserved communities by providing millions in debt relief.

USA Today: “Such debt disproportionately affects people of color, who don’t have the levels of generational wealth of many of their white counterparts. Black students in particular struggle with student debt.”

The Nation: “How Student Loan Cancellation Helps Asian Americans”

CNBC: “In October, when the Biden administration turns the $1.7 trillion federal student loan system — dormant for more than three years — back on, millions of people are expected to struggle financially. But the problems may be especially severe and long-lasting among Latino borrowers, who tend to earn less than non-Hispanic whites and fall behind on their loans at a higher rate, consumer advocates say.”

Forbes: “How Biden Forgiving Another $9 Billion In Student Loan Debt Helps Close The Racial Wealth Gap”

“The burden of student loan debt has reached crisis levels, disproportionately affecting students of color and amplifying the racial wealth gap. Now, President Biden’s latest step will help 125,000 borrowers by erasing $9 billion in debt through existing programs. This debt load is not distributed evenly across populations, it falls disproportionately on students of color and their families who are actively trying to close the racial wealth gap.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to rail against student loan forgiveness, hand-picking Supreme Court justices who ultimately struck down debt relief for 40 million Americans. 

CEPR: “On student debt relief, [Project 2025’s] Mandate for Leadership proposals would roll back much of what the Biden administration accomplished for student borrowers and loan-burdened public servants. Indeed, their ideal wish is that ‘there should be no loan forgiveness.’

“If the first Trump administration was any indication, a second would work to eliminate the federal tools that could help student borrowers instead of addressing the student debt crisis.”

NBC News: “Trump also attempted to cut billions from the department’s budget that would have ended subsidized student loans and the public service loan forgiveness program.”

CNBC: “Former President Donald Trump has a long record of opposing debt cancellation. Trump also sided with the Supreme Court in its ruling striking down Biden’s plan.”

Daily Mail: “Former President Donald Trump … went after President Joe Biden for his student loan forgiveness plan.”

Trump campaign press release: “Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down massive wins for the American people— halting Joe Biden’s unconstitutional student loan gimmick, restoring fairness to the college admissions process, and applying the strongest safeguards to First Amendment rights in a generation. One thing is clear: these wins were only made possible through President Trump’s strong nomination of three distinguished and courageous jurists to the Supreme Court.”

Associated Press: “Education advocates say President Donald Trump’s budget contradicts his campaign pledge to make college more affordable with its proposed elimination of subsidized student loans and cuts in other programs that help students pay tuition. … When he accepted the Republican presidential nomination last year, Trump had said, ‘We’re going to work with all of our students who are drowning in debt to take the pressure off these people just starting out in their adult lives. Tremendous problem.’”