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Tag: Biden Administration
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Texas border sees influx of Nicaraguan migrants ahead of Title 42 expiration
Texas border sees influx of Nicaraguan migrants ahead of Title 42 expiration – CBS News
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9 million Americans wrongly told they were approved for student debt forgiveness
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About 9 million Americans with student loans who had applied for the Biden administration’s student-debt forgiveness program mistakenly received emails last month that said their applications had been approved.
The messages were part of updates the Department of Education issued in November to inform 16 million debt relief applicants that they had been approved to have up to $20,000 forgiven. But an additional 9 million people received emails saying they had received loan forgiveness when they had not been approved for relief because the process was halted due to legal challenges, according to officials. And others who hadn’t yet applied for the student loan relief program also received the email.
The error was made by Accenture Federal Services, a contractor with the Education Department, which sent the emails on November 22 and 23. The mistake may only compound confusion among some borrowers about the debt-relief program, which for now remains in limbo due to several legal challenges, with the Supreme Court earlier this month agreeing to hear one of the cases.
About 26 million people had applied for the loan relief effort prior to the court rulings that have effectively stopped the Biden administration’s ability to accept new applications. In the meantime, the Biden administration has extended the pause on student debt repayments, which were slated to resume in January, until as late as June 30, 2023, to give borrowers more breathing room while the legal challenges move forward.
On December 8, the Job Creators Network, a conservative group, said it submitted a request to the Supreme Court to hear a second case relating to the loan-relief program. It is asking the high court to reject the Biden administration’s request to stay a lower court decision that blocks the loan-forgiveness plan.
In its request, the Job Creators Network is asking the Supreme Court to hear its case on the same day it hears the other legal challenge to the program, which stems from a case brought by six Republican-led states that are arguing the Biden administration is overstepping its executive powers with the loan-relief program.
The Job Creators Network had sued in October, arguing the Biden administration violated federal procedures by failing to seek public input on the program.
“Corrective action”
“Communicating clearly and accurately with borrowers is a top priority of the Department,” a spokesperson for the Education Department said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch. “We are in close touch with Accenture Federal Services as they take corrective action to ensure all borrowers and those affected have accurate information about debt relief.”
The email subject line incorrectly informed 9 million recipients: “Your Student Loan Debt Relief Plan Has Been Approved.” However, the text of the letter was accurate, letting those recipients know that the determination of their eligibility would continue “if and when we prevail in court.”
Corrected emails will be sent to those recipients and those who received the email in error within the next few days.
In a statement to CBS MoneyWatch, Accenture blamed the issue on “human error.”
“Accenture Federal Services regrets the human error that led to an email being sent to a number of student loan debt relief applicants with an inaccurate subject line,” the firm said. “Working closely with the Department, Accenture Federal Services will review quality control measures to support accurate and timely communications to applicants in the Student Loan Debt Relief program.”
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Some U.S. officials express concern over Brittney Griner prisoner swap
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Some U.S. officials express concern over Brittney Griner prisoner swap – CBS News
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New law is changing people’s rights to report sexual harassment at work
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New law is changing people’s rights to report sexual harassment at work – CBS News
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Biden Amin Appeals Ruling That Would Lift Asylum Restrictions
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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. government said Wednesday it is appealing a court ruling that would otherwise lift asylum restrictions that have become the cornerstone of border enforcement in recent years.
The enforcement rule first took effect in March 2020, denying migrants’ rights to seek asylum under U.S. and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
The Homeland Security Department said it would file an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, challenging a November ruling by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan that ordered President Joe Biden’s administration to lift the asylum restrictions.
The restrictions were put in place under former President Donald Trump at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The practice was authorized under Title 42 of a broader 1944 law covering public health, and has been used to expel migrants more than 2.4 million times.
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Democratic pollster John Anzalone on
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Democratic pollster John Anzalone on “The Takeout” — 11/18/2022 – CBS News
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Railroad labor bill that could avert strike in Senate’s hands with deadline approaching
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After 3 mass shootings in 2 weeks, Biden pushes for stricter gun legislation
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A Florida teacher thought she’d settled her student loan debt 20 years ago. Then she got a bill for $1 million.
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For almost a decade, the government took hundreds of dollars each month out of the paychecks of a Florida woman named Michelle to recoup old student loans that were unpaid and overdue. The process, called garnishment, is legal, and the U.S. Department of Education can order it for someone’s wages, tax returns and Social Security to force repayment on defaulted loans.
Michelle’s garnishment began in 2008. As a public school teacher in Orlando, who asked to be identified by her first name only because this story involves her personal finances, she struggled for the next eight or nine years to make ends meet while supporting her two children.
“I almost lost my house and everything over this because I just couldn’t afford it,” she said. And with roughly $800 per month suddenly gone, Michelle recalled at times facing impossible decisions day to day: “I’ve got to consider, ‘Do we get this meal or do we keep the lights on? Which is more important right now?’”
After the garnishment period ended, Michelle believed that her student debts were paid in full. But, this past spring, she started receiving notices about a different loan, which she borrowed through the now-defunct Perkins Loan Program while pursuing an undergraduate degree at the University of Florida.
The program offered low-interest federal loans to undergraduate and graduate students with “exceptional financial need,” according to the Department of Education, and is now being phased out since officially closing in September 2017. Michelle applied for loan forgiveness through the Perkins program after graduating from the University of Florida in 1997, and later satisfied the teaching service requirements to get it.
So, when Michelle opened a letter from her alma mater in July suggesting that her Perkins loan repayments were “severely past due,” she was stunned. Even more confounding than the bill itself was the amount it said she still owed the school: $955,000.02.
“I actually went into depression. I went into hiding. I didn’t know how to make sense of it because it was so long ago,” said Michelle. “So now, I’m like, I’m about to retire and I’m about to lose everything.”
Michelle turned out to be wrong. Thanks in large part to an internet stranger with decades of expertise who eagerly offered to help sort through the student loan debacle, her situation changed almost overnight.
Michelle’s daughter posted the letter to Reddit — a site that Michelle said she had visited “maybe twice” in her life before — in a section dedicated to discussions about student loans. The site’s users quickly tagged one member — Betsy Mayotte, the president and founder of an organization called The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, which provides a range of free services to borrowers like Michelle.
courtesy Michelle via Reddit
Mayotte is a regular in the site’s r/StudentLoans subreddit, where people share personal experiences and tips as they navigate daunting repayment schedules amid changing debt relief policies under the Biden Administration, and frequently uses it to connect with people who need advice about their loans. In a comment on the original post from Michelle’s daughter, another user calls Mayotte the “GOAT,” which stands for greatest of all time.
Mayotte, having worked before with Perkins loan borrowers who had been blindsided by unexpected bills, stepped in as a liaison between Michelle and the University of Florida. The original amount was quickly determined to be a mistake. A spokesperson at the University of Florida attributed the error to a technical issue at ECSI, a company that universities hire to act as a loan servicer for former students repaying balances through the Perkins program.
While the university said in a statement that it could not comment on Michelle’s case specifically, citing records protection laws for students, the school noted that “no student at the University of Florida has ever owed” nearly $1 million in student loans.
“However, in July, the University of Florida learned that the computer system used by the company that handles billing for the university issued statements with erroneous amounts to borrowers for many schools, including UF,” the statement continued. A university spokesperson later said ECSI planned to issue new statements “reflecting the correct balances” within a week of the error coming to light.
A spokesperson at ECSI confirmed the calculation issue and acknowledged in a statement that the company “sent letters to a small number of borrowers reflecting incorrect amounts owed on their loans” over the summer.
“These letters were promptly corrected and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused,” the spokesperson said.
By the end of August, Michelle had received at least one of several amended statements that would ultimately come by mail from the University of Florida. The new balance still ran quite high, about $8,000, and while Michelle said she “felt better, of course, because that wasn’t a million,” she also suspected the revised number, which did not match the balance reflected in her online account, was incorrect.
After graduating with her bachelor’s degree, Michelle had applied for loan cancellation through a teaching program offered to Perkins loan recipients. It promised to cancel a portion of the borrower’s loan for every academic year spent teaching in certain schools, or certain subject areas. For example, someone who taught in a school serving students from low-income families, or taught special education, math, science or foreign language classes would be eligible for complete loan forgiveness.
Michelle fulfilled the requirements in various teaching positions held over the course of five years. She submitted the records necessary to confirm her eligibility for relief under the Perkins program guidelines, and assumed the loan was forgiven. But, when Mayotte again reached out to the university with questions about Michelle’s updated balance, she was told that Michelle’s records never arrived.
“They said they never received it,” said Mayotte. She noted that, in her experience, miscommunication is common between Perkins loan borrowers and their loan servicers, despite company policies that technically require loan servicers to send borrowers monthly notifications about their bills, especially when they are past due. Unlike other federal student loans that are managed by vendors or servicers affiliated with the Department of Education, Perkins loan servicers have historically been the universities themselves, which then outsource loan servicing tasks to a third party.
“I see all the time, people that say, ‘I haven’t had a bill for my Perkins loan in 10 years, 20 years,’” said Mayotte. “It makes it really difficult for the borrower. You know, a lot of times it’s a legit bill. But if it isn’t, what consumer keeps records for 20 years to be able to push back on that?”
ECSI did not become a loan servicer for the University of Florida until the early 2000s, years after Michelle submitted her forgiveness paperwork to the school, and the company spokesperson said it “had no involvement” in the record-keeping process that determined whether or not she was granted relief.
“Nevertheless, we were happy to assist the institution with the issues they had with this borrower and rectify the loan forgiveness,” the spokesperson said.
Michelle, “thankfully,” per Mayotte, was able to prove her eligibility for retroactive relief through the Perkins loan teaching program. Her final balance: $408, which, she said, was paid in full as of two weeks ago.
“The only word I had was amen when I got that letter,” Michelle said. “I couldn’t process it completely. I was just grateful.”
Although Michelle’s exorbitant student loan balance was a mistake, Mayotte said she has worked with a couple of clients before who really do owe close to $1 million for money borrowed to go to school.
A recent report published by the Education Data Initiative points to the ongoing student debt crisis in the U.S., which has proven difficult to remedy despite President Biden’s promised loan forgiveness plan — now on hold, per court order, and potentially headed to the Supreme Court. Student debt currently totals $1.745 trillion nationwide, according to the report, which places the average federal loan debt balance at just under $38,000. But, with Biden’s forgiveness plan stalled, the administration recently announced that it is extending the pause on student debt repayments until June of next year.
“Education, when financed by student loans, does not live up to its mantra as the ‘great equalizer,’” said Michelle in an email, adding that borrowers, particularly those who go on to work in the public sector, often “grow old with the burdens of student loans and are sometimes never, ever fully able to make future plans, to upgrade lifestyle, to save, to invest, or retire on time. The pay is generally too low — paycheck to paycheck — and the life cycle of loans last entirely too long.”
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Renewed concerns of a railway workers strike puts damper on recent White House festivities
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CBS Evening News, November 18, 2022
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Biden To Announce More Restrictions on Methane Emissions Amid Push For More Oil
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SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — The Biden administration is ramping up efforts to reduce methane emissions, targeting the oil and gas industry for its role in global warming even as President Joe Biden has pressed energy producers for more oil drilling to lower prices at the gasoline pump.
Biden was set to announce on Friday a supplemental rule cracking down on emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming and packs a stronger short-term punch than even carbon dioxide — as he attends a global climate conference in Egypt.
The new rule by the Environmental Protection Agency follows up on a methane rule Biden announced last year at a United Nations climate summit in Scotland. The 2021 rule targets emissions from existing oil and gas wells nationwide, rather than focusing only on new wells as previous EPA regulations have done.
The new rule goes a step further and takes aim at all drilling sites, including smaller wells that emit less than 3 tons (2.7 metric tonnes) of methane per year. Small wells currently are subject to an initial inspection but are rarely checked again for leaks.
The proposal also requires operators to respond to credible third-party reports of high-volume methane leaks.
A flare to burn methane from oil production is seen on a well pad near Watford City, North Dakota, Aug. 26, 2021. The Biden administration is ramping up efforts to reduce methane emissions, targeting the oil and gas industry for its role in global warming even as President Joe Biden has pressed energy producers for more oil drilling to lower prices at the gasoline pump. AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File
The Biden administration will embark on “a relentless focus to root out emissions wherever we can find them,” White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi said Friday at climate negotiations in Egypt, hours before the president was set to speak at the international climate summit.
Oil and gas production is the nation’s largest industrial source of methane, the primary component of natural gas, and is a key target for the Biden administration as it seeks to combat climate change. The United States is among more than 100 countries that have pledged to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels.
“We must lead by example when it comes to tackling methane pollution — one of the biggest drivers of climate change,″ said EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who also is in Egypt for the climate talks. The new, stronger standards “will enable innovative new technology to flourish while protecting people and the planet,” he said.
“Our regulatory approach is very aggressive from a timing standpoint and a stringency standpoint,” Regan said at a briefing in Egypt. The old and new rules should be able to prevent more than 80% of the energy waste, about 36 million tons (32.6 million metric tonnes) of carbon emissions, he said.
Leakage from wells and pipelines is why former Vice President Al Gore and others call natural gas “a bridge to nowhere.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Gore said: “When you work the math, a leakage of 2 to 3% of the methane completely negates the climate advantage of methane gas. And, tragically, the wildcatters that do most of the hydrological fracturing do not pay attention to the methane leakage. You have leakage in the LNG (liquefied natural gas) process, you have leakage in pipelines, you have leakage in the use.”
The supplemental rule comes as Biden has accused oil companies of “war profiteering” and raised the possibility of imposing a windfall tax on energy companies if they don’t boost domestic production.
Biden has repeatedly criticized major oil companies for making record-setting profits in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine while refusing to help lower prices at the pump for the American people. The Democratic president suggested last week that he will look to Congress to impose tax penalties on oil companies if they don’t invest some of their record-breaking profits to lower costs for American consumers.
Besides the EPA rule, the new climate and health law approved by Congress in August includes a methane emissions reduction program that would impose a fee on energy producers that exceed a certain level of methane emissions. The fee, set to rise to $1,500 per metric ton of methane, marks the first time the federal government has directly imposed a fee, or tax, on greenhouse gas emissions.
The law allows exemptions for companies that comply with the EPA’s standards or fall below a certain emissions threshold. It also includes $1.5 billon in grants and other spending to help operators and local communities improve monitoring and data collection for methane emissions, with the goal of finding and repairing natural gas leaks.
Multiple studies have found that smaller wells produce just 6% of the nation’s oil and gas but account for up to half the methane emissions from well sites.
“We can’t leave half of the problem on the table and expect to get the reductions that we need to get and protect local communities from pollution,” said Jon Goldstein, senior director of regulatory affairs for oil and gas at the Environmental Defense Fund.
The oil industry has generally welcomed direct federal regulation of methane emissions, preferring a single national standard to a hodgepodge of state rules.
Even so, oil and gas companies have asked the EPA to exempt hundreds of thousands of the nation’s smallest wells from the upcoming methane rules.
Daly reported from Washington.
Follow the AP’s coverage of climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.
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U.S. extends temporary legal status of 337,000 immigrants through 2024 amid court battle
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The Biden administration on Thursday said it would extend the deportation protections and work permits of an estimated 337,000 immigrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Nepal and Honduras through the summer of 2024, preempting a court decision that could have led to their legal status expiring next year.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a notice that it will allow immigrants from these countries to continue living and working in the U.S. legally under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) policy until at least June 2024. Created in 1990, TPS is a deportation relief program the U.S. can extend to nationals of countries beset by armed conflict, natural disasters or other humanitarian crises.
Thursday’s announcement comes two weeks after court negotiations between the Biden administration and lawyers representing TPS holders broke down, paving the way for the Trump administration’s decision to terminate the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants enrolled in the program to take effect.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
But in its notice on Thursday, DHS said immigrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Nepal and Honduras would get to keep their work permits and deportation protections at least 365 days after the department is allowed to end the TPS programs in question, or until June 30, 2024 — whichever date comes later.
The June 30, 2024, extension also applies to certain Haitian and Sudanese immigrants, but they are also eligible to apply for work permits and deportation protections under expansions of TPS programs for Haiti and Sudan announced by the Biden administration that are not affected by the litigation in federal court.
“DHS is well aware of the importance of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in providing stability to people’s lives,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News on Thursday.
As of the end of 2021, 241,699 Salvadorans, 76,737 Hondurans, 14,556 Nepalis and 4,250 Nicaraguans were enrolled in the TPS program, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data.
TPS allows beneficiaries to live and work in the country without fear of deportation, but it does not provide them a path to permanent residency or citizenship. Those who lose their TPS protections could become eligible for deportation, unless they apply for, and are granted, another immigration benefit.
As part of its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration tried to terminate TPS programs for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan, Honduras and Nepal. But those terminations were blocked in federal courts by lawsuits that argued the terminations were rooted in racial animus and not properly justified
In September 2020, however, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the Trump administration the greenlight to end the TPS programs, saying courts could not review DHS decisions related to the policy. The ruling, however, did not take effect, because attorneys representing the TPS holders asked the court to consider rehearing the case “en banc,” or with all active judges participating.
The Biden administration, which pledged to prevent the deportation of TPS holders to “unsafe” countries, entered into court negotiations to try to settle the litigation over the Trump-era termination decisions. It also formally extended the TPS programs for immigrants from Haiti and Sudan.
After a year of court negotiations, attorneys for TPS holders announced on Oct. 26 that they had failed to reach a settlement with the Biden administration. Both parties are now waiting for the 9th Circuit to decide whether it will grant or deny the request to rehear the case.
If the request is denied, the 9th Circuit’s ruling from September 2020 will become binding, unless the Supreme Court intervenes.
Ahilan Arulanantham, one of the attorneys representing TPS holders in the litigation, said Thursday’s announcement was an “important victory.” But he called it an “interim one.”
“Despite today’s extension, the Biden administration is still defending Trump’s racist TPS termination decisions in court, which unless the Biden administration acts, will remain on the books,” said Arulanantham, the co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law.
Arulanantham called on the Biden administration to create new TPS programs for El Salvador, Nicaragua, Nepal and Honduras, just like it has done for Haiti and Sudan.
Democratic lawmakers have advocated for TPS holders to be allowed to apply for permanent residency as part of a proposal to legalize unauthorized immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for years. Many TPS holders have lived in the country for over two decades. The TPS program for El Salvador, for example, began in 2001.
But congressional Democrats and Republicans have not been able to forge an agreement on immigration for decades, and GOP lawmakers have increasingly opposed creating legalization programs, absent changes to U.S. border policy.
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U.S. and Chinese officials working to set up meeting between Biden, Xi Jinping
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U.S. and Chinese officials working to set up meeting between Biden, Xi Jinping – CBS News
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Appeals court temporarily pauses student loan forgiveness plan
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A federal appeals court Friday is blocking President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay in response to an emergency motion brought by attorneys for several Republican-led states after a lower court ruled that their September lawsuit to stop the debt forgiveness program lacked standing.
In their appeal, the plaintiffs — which include Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina and Arkansas — said the forgiveness program will irreparably harm their states’ student loan programs.
“Missouri is harmed from the financial losses that the cancellation inflicts,” the motion read.
They stay is not based on the merits, but allows for further briefings on the issue next week.
This also comes after the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday declined an emergency appeal by a group of Wisconsin taxpayers who had also challenged the plan in a separate lawsuit.
President Biden announced in August that his administration is canceling up to $20,000 in student loan debt for millions of Americans. Nearly 20 million people will be eligible to have their debt fully canceled under the new plan.
Borrowers who received Pell Grants, which are for low- and middle-income families, can get as much as $20,000 in debt forgiven, while other borrowers can get relief of up to $10,000.
Only individuals who earned less than $125,000 in 2020 or 2021 and married couples with total annual income below $250,000 are eligible for loan relief under the program.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Education formally launched its debt relief application website. It’s unclear how Friday’s ruling will affect the site or the application process. However, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Friday evening that the “temporary order does not prevent borrowers from applying for student debt relief.”
“It also does not prevent us from reviewing these applications and preparing them for transmission to loan servicers,” Jean-Pierre said. “It is also important to note that the order does not reverse the trial court’s dismissal of the case, or suggest that the case has merit. It merely prevents debt from being discharged until the court makes a decision.”
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona reiterated that sentiment in his own statement, saying: “today’s temporary decision does not stop the Biden Administration’s efforts to provide borrowers the opportunity to apply for debt relief, nor does it prevent us from reviewing the millions of applications we have received.”
— Robert Legare contributed reporting.
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President Biden travels to Pennsylvania to campaign for Democrats
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Student loan forgiveness application is now open: How to apply
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The U.S. government opened a website to allow Americans with federal student loans to apply for up to $20,000 in debt forgiveness.
The site comes after the Biden administration said its goal was to create an application that would be “short and simple.” The application requires just a few minutes to fill out, but could leave some borrowers with questions about the timing for debt forgiveness, among other issues.
President Biden highlighted the new debt-relief site in a press briefing on Monday, saying the forgiveness program is now open and calling it a “game-changer for millions of Americans.” On Friday, the Education Department opened a beta version of the application and on Monday went live with the website to apply for loan relief.
About 95% of Americans with college loans are expected to qualify for forgiveness, while the remainder earn too much money and are ineligible. While the program could help about 40 million Americans who are carrying debt from higher education, it has also drawn legal challenges from conservative lawmakers and advocacy groups who are seeking to block the effort.
Unless those challenges result in a court injunction, the application site indicates the Department of Education is on track “to begin forgiving student loans in November and December ahead of January 2023, when student loan repayment is expected to resume,” noted Benjamin Salisbury, an analyst with Height Securities, in a research note.
Here’s what to know about applying for student debt forgiveness.
When is the loan-relief site launching?
Mr. Biden said the program has officially opened on Monday and pointed people to a government website, studentaid.gov, where they can apply for loan forgiveness.
In a press briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration has seen an “overwhelmingly strong response” to the new site since its launch.
More than 8 million people applied for forgiveness through the beta site since it opened on October 15, according to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
If I filled out the beta application, do I need to reapply?
No, according to the Biden administration.
“If you submit an application during this [beta] period, it will be processed when the site officially launches,” the Education Department said. “You won’t need to resubmit. If you have already applied and received a confirmation email, you do not need to apply again.”
How long is the application?
The application is short, with two sections that require only a few minutes to fill out.
- The first section requires you to provide basic information about yourself, including name, date of birth, email and Social Security number.
- The second section is an “attestation” that you qualify for loan forgiveness, including that your income falls below the cutoff for eligibility.
Only individuals who earned less than $125,000 in 2020 or 2021 and married couples with total annual income below $250,000 are eligible for loan relief under the program.
The application doesn’t require borrowers to upload tax forms or any other documents.
However, Biden administration officials said there may be cases where some applicants are required to provide more documentation to confirm they are eligible. For instance, borrowers who “are more likely to exceed the income cutoff” may have to provide tax returns or other documents to confirm their income meets the eligibility requirements, an official said.
Is there a deadline for applying?
Yes. The deadline is December 31, 2023, which means that people with student debt have more than a year to send their applications to the Department of Education.
People who want to ensure they get debt relief prior to the resumption of student loan repayments in January should make sure to apply for forgiveness before November 15, as it could take several weeks for the Education Department to process the application.
What happens if I claim to be eligible when I’m not?
The attestation section of the form requires applicants to confirm that they are eligible “under penalty of perjury.” In signing the attestation, applicants are verifying that they earn under the income thresholds set by the program and that they are the person applying for loan relief.
People who claim to qualify for loan forgiveness, but actually earn over the income limits, could face fines and other problems, including jail time, administration officials have said.
Could legal challenges halt the loan forgiveness?
It’s possible, according to experts. Several lawsuits have been filed seeking to block the student debt-relief program, with a judge expected to rule soon on a challenge filed by six GOP-led states. These challenges could delay, or even derail, the government’s loan forgiveness program.
Asked about the legal challenges, Biden on Monday said he didn’t believe they were “legit.”
If the judge denies to provide a national injunction on the debt-relief program, “the Biden Administration can be expected expeditiously to forgive student loans, effectively further complicating the litigation process,” Salisbury noted in his report.
He added, “The ruling will face the risk of appeal from either party, in which case the case would then be heard by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, where it would be likely to face a panel of conservative judges.”
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Student loan forgiveness application is now open: Here’s what to know
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The U.S. government opened a website to let Americans with federal student loans apply for up to $20,000 in debt forgiveness.
The site comes after the Biden administration said its goal was to create an application that would be “short and simple.” The application requires just a few minutes to fill out, but could leave some borrowers with questions about the timing for debt forgiveness, among other issues.
President Biden highlighted the new debt-relief site in a press briefing on Monday, saying the forgiveness program is now open and calling it a “game-changer for millions of Americans.” On Friday, the Education Department opened a beta version of the application and on Monday went live with the website to apply for loan relief.
About 95% of Americans with college loans are expected to qualify for forgiveness, while the remainder earn too much money and are ineligible. While the program could help about 40 million Americans who are carrying debt from higher education, it has also drawn legal challenges from conservative lawmakers and advocacy groups who are seeking to block the effort.
Unless those challenges result in a court injunction, the application site indicates the Department of Education is on track “to begin forgiving student loans in November and December ahead of January 2023, when student loan repayment is expected to resume,” noted Benjamin Salisbury, an analyst with Height Securities, in a research note.
Here’s what to know about applying for student debt forgiveness.
When is the loan-relief site launching?
Mr. Biden said the program has officially opened on Monday and pointed people to a government website, studentaid.gov, where they can apply for loan forgiveness.
In a press briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration has seen an “overwhelmingly strong response” to the new site since its launch.
More than 8 million people applied for forgiveness through the beta site since it opened on October 15, according to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
If I filled out the beta application, do I need to reapply?
No, according to the Biden administration.
“If you submit an application during this [beta] period, it will be processed when the site officially launches,” the Education Department said. “You won’t need to resubmit. If you have already applied and received a confirmation email, you do not need to apply again.”
How long is the application?
The application is short, with two sections that require only a few minutes to fill out.
- The first section requires you to provide basic information about yourself, including name, date of birth, email and Social Security number.
- The second section is an “attestation” that you qualify for loan forgiveness, including that your income falls below the cutoff for eligibility.
Only individuals who earned less than $125,000 in 2020 or 2021 and married couples with total annual income below $250,000 are eligible for loan relief under the program.
The application doesn’t require borrowers to upload tax forms or any other documents.
However, Biden administration officials said there may be cases where some applicants are required to provide more documentation to confirm they are eligible. For instance, borrowers who “are more likely to exceed the income cutoff” may have to provide tax returns or other documents to confirm their income meets the eligibility requirements, an official said.
What happens if I claim to be eligible when I’m not?
The attestation section of the form requires applicants to confirm that they are eligible “under penalty of perjury.” In signing the attestation, applicants are verifying that they earn under the income thresholds set by the program and that they are the person applying for loan relief.
People who claim to qualify for loan forgiveness, but actually earn over the income limits, could face fines and other problems, including jail time, administration officials have said.
Could legal challenges halt the loan forgiveness?
It’s possible, according to experts. Several lawsuits have been filed seeking to block the student debt-relief program, with a judge expected to rule soon on a challenge filed by six GOP-led states. These challenges could delay, or even derail, the government’s loan forgiveness program.
Asked about the legal challenges, Biden on Monday said he didn’t believe they were “legit.”
If the judge denies to provide a national injunction on the debt-relief program, “the Biden Administration can be expected expeditiously to forgive student loans, effectively further complicating the litigation process,” Salisbury noted in his report.
He added, “The ruling will face the risk of appeal from either party, in which case the case would then be heard by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, where it would be likely to face a panel of conservative judges.”
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Student-loan relief application opens via test site: What to know
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The U.S. government on Friday opened a test website to let Americans with federal student loans apply for up to $20,000 in debt forgiveness.
The beta site comes after the Biden administration said its goal was to create an application that would be “short and simple.” The test application requires just a few minutes to fill out, but could leave some borrowers with questions about the timing for debt forgiveness, among other issues.
About 95% of Americans with college loans are expected to qualify for relief, while the remainder earn too much money and are ineligible. While the program could help about 40 million Americans who are carrying debt from higher education, it has also drawn legal challenges from conservative lawmakers and advocacy groups who are seeking to block the effort.
Unless those challenges result in a court injunction, the beta application site indicates the Department of Education is on track “to begin forgiving student loans in November and December ahead of January 2023, when student loan repayment is expected to resume,” noted Benjamin Salisbury, an analyst with Height Securities, in a research note.
Here’s what to know about applying for student debt forgiveness.
What is the beta launch?
The Biden administration is testing the application before its official rollout later this month.
As part of the test, it is inviting people who qualify for the government’s forgiveness program to “be among the first to apply for student debt relief, by being a tester of the online application NOW before we officially launch,” according a Saturday email from the Department of Education.
You can find the beta application here.
If I fill out the beta application, do I need to reapply later?
No, according to the Biden administration.
“If you submit an application during this period, it will be processed when the site officially launches,” the Education Department said. “You won’t need to resubmit. If you have already applied and received a confirmation email, you do not need to apply again.”
The application isn’t available. What’s up?
The Education Department said the test application “will be available on and off during this beta period.” Try again if you go to the site and it’s not available, according to the agency.
“Once the application officially opens later this month, it will remain open until December 31, 2023,” it said.
How long is the application?
The application is short, with two sections that require only a few minutes to fill out.
- The first section requires you to provide basic information about yourself, including name, date of birth, email and Social Security number.
- The second section is an “attestation” that you qualify for loan forgiveness, including that your income falls below the cutoff for eligibility.
Only individuals who earned less than $125,000 in 2020 or 2021 and married couples with total annual income below $250,000 are eligible for loan relief under the program.
The application doesn’t require borrowers to upload tax forms or any other documents.
However, Biden administration officials said there may be cases where some applicants are required to provide more documentation to confirm they are eligible. For instance, borrowers who “are more likely to exceed the income cutoff” may have to provide tax returns or other documents to confirm their income meets the eligibility requirements, an official said.
What happens if I claim to be eligible when I’m not?
The attestation section of the form requires applicants to confirm that they are eligible “under penalty of perjury.” In signing the attestation, applicants are verifying that they earn under the income thresholds set by the program and that they are the person applying for loan relief.
People who claim to qualify for loan forgiveness, but actually earn over the income limits, could face fines and other problems, including jail time, administration officials have said.
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Biden’s student-loan relief application will open any day. Here are 5 steps to prepare.
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President Biden’s plan to erase up to $20,000 in student loans will require millions of borrowers to fill out an application to receive approval, a step that will likely be available within days.
The application will open in October, which will be a “short online application,” the Department of Education said on September 29, although it didn’t specify when exactly the form would go live. In the meantime, borrowers can take a few steps to make sure they are prepared to fill out the form when it goes live.
Because only some types of debt are covered by the plan — and some borrowers will be able to tap higher forgiveness limits than others — borrowers should make sure to understand their loans and what they qualify for before they fill out an application, experts say. Even if you have everything ready to apply, there may be technical glitches as it’s likely that millions of borrowers will flood the site when the application goes live, noted Melissa Byrne, executive director of WeThe45Million, an activist group of borrowers who lobbied for debt relief.
“I’m confident that the Biden Administration is 100% on it, to deliver relief, but it’s a very big system,” Byrne noted. “Everyone wants their relief right away.”
There’s also a potential roadblock to Biden’s relief effort that borrowers should keep an eye on: a legal challenge.
A federal judge is expected to rule on a lawsuit against Mr. Biden’s student debt plan from six GOP-led states by October 12, Washington Post reporter Danielle Douglas-Gabriel told CBS News. If the judge places an injunction on Biden’s move, it “may create a stall or halt to this policy,” she said.
The lawsuit, filed in September by attorneys general in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina, argues that taxpayers shouldn’t be saddled with paying the debt of other Americans who opted to go to college and now can’t repay their loans.
“Everyone’s paying attention for the next week or so to see what will come out of that case,” Douglas-Gabriel said.
In the meantime, here are 5 steps you can take now to prepare for the application.
Sign up for an application alert
First, sign up for an alert from the Department of Education that will let you know when the application goes live. This can be done at Department of Education subscription page. Check the first box, which is called “NEW!! Federal Student Loan Borrower Updates.”
Don’t forget to monitor your email and spam filters for updates from the Department of Education, Byrne noted. “Be chained to your inbox in case you get a communication,” she added.
Check whether you are a Pell Grant recipient
People who received Pell Grants to fund their education can receive up to $20,000 in debt relief — double the $10,000 in forgiveness available to everyone else.
Pell Grants are provided to low-income students, but Byrne noted that some borrowers may not be aware if they received one, especially if their parents filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, for them. FAFSA is the financial aid application that’s required to receive loans, financial aid and grants.
“There are a lot of people who don’t even know because their parents might have been handling it, and they were 17 or 18 years old,” she noted.
To check, go to StudentAid.gov and log into your Federal Student Aid account. On your dashboard, look for “My Aid” and then for the section for grants and loans, which will provide the data.
Determine if your loans are covered
The Biden administration’s plan covers federally held loans, which means you should check that your loans qualify. Private student debt won’t be part of the forgiveness.
And the Biden administration recently changed its guidance to eliminate some student loans from eligibility for forgiveness, a major reversal as the Department of Education makes final preparations to launch debt relief applications.
As of September 29, borrowers with student loans through the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program and Perkins Loans who have not already consolidated their debt into direct loans will now no longer be able to do so and are no longer eligible for federal debt relief, the Education Department now says.
Those programs, though federally guaranteed, are held by private institutions. Borrowers with FFEL and Perkins Loans who applied to consolidate in the direct loan program before Thursday will still eligible for debt relief.
Gather income data
The program is limited to individuals who earned less than $125,000 or married couples with incomes below $250,000.
The program will use adjusted gross income, or AGI, which is a figure that reflects your gross income minus some adjustments like student loan interest, according to the IRS. You can find that figure on your tax return (Form 1040) on line 11.
Check your AGI for both 2020 and 2021, because the Biden administration said it will consider either year.
“Everyone should figure out what their AGI is for those years — even if it’s a penny below $125,000 for individuals or one penny below $250,000 for married couples, you’ll qualify, Byrne noted.
Mark November 15 on your calendar
The Department of Education is alerting borrowers to apply before November 15 in order to get debt relief before the student loan payment pause ends on December 31.
If you don’t apply by then, not all is lost: the deadline to apply for loan forgiveness is December 31, 2023, and the education department notes that it will continue to process applications as they are received, even after repayments resume in January.
But if you want to make sure your payments reflect the loan relief starting in January, apply before November 15.
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