A decision on the legality of the plan is expected soon, but even Biden has expressed doubt in recent months that the conservative-majority Supreme Court will uphold the plan.
“Generally, I hope that no matter what happens with this Supreme Court decision, that our decision-makers keep talking about options when it comes to providing student debt relief,” Sabrina Golling, a 27-year-old student loan borrower, told The Hill on Monday.
“I am not overly hopeful that this attempt will pass, but I am hopeful that we can keep talking about the possibilities as time moves on, since this problem isn’t going away any time soon,” she added.
Republicans are crossing their fingers in hopes that the plan will ultimately be struck down, citing projected costs of the effort and calling the proposal unfair to Americans who didn’t attend college.
“Congress is the only body with the authority to enact sweeping and fundamental changes of this nature, and it is ludicrous for President Biden to assume he can simply bypass the will of the American people,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, previously said.
But advocates are already dialing up pressure on the Biden administration to explore alternative plans for debt cancellation should the Supreme Court rule against the forgiveness plan in the days ahead.
“Black borrowers are disproportionately impacted by student loan debt and with payments starting back potentially in October, we need to make it very clear that regardless of what happens with this SCOTUS decision we have to make sure student debt cancellation happens,” Satra Taylor, director of higher education and workforce policy at Young Invincibles, told The Hill during a rally outside the White House last week.
The Hill’s Lexi Lonas has more here.
