Joe Biden Student Loan Plan Could Cause Big Issue If Not Approved

United States President Joe Biden's student loan plan could cause big issues, particularly for citizens suffering under the pressure of student debt, if it is not approved.

The first day of hearing for the Democrat's planned program is marred with a feeling of hope but also worries. One resident, Ambalika Williams, the national director of the student advocacy group Organizing at Rise, has nearly $10,000 in student loans.

Joe Biden's Student Loan Program

The approval or disapproval of the program would determine whether or not her entire debt will be forgiven or if it stays. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court justices will hear arguments representing the culmination of a long-standing political and constitutional clash.

The situation has left more than 40 million student loan borrowers in limbo, including Williams, who now worries that she may have to delay her plans to buy a new home if her student debts are not forgiven.

In a statement, Williams said that if the student loan plan is not approved, she will be forced to make difficult financial decisions. The 33-year-old from Washington, DC, added that she had already paid to bring her debt down from an original $40,000, as per CBS News.

The two cases that the Supreme Court justices will handle have forced Biden's student debt program to a complete standstill. The plan aims to provide up to $20,000 in student debt relief for each borrower in the United States. Before the plan was frozen, the administration had already approved 16 million applications out of roughly 26 people who applied.

By now, many of those borrowers would have had their debts forgiven if there were no legal challenges in the way, said the executive director of the student debt activist group WeThe45Million, Melissa Byrne.

On Tuesday, she said that the fact that people even have to think about what to do means that they are stressing about a situation that they do not have to. Byrne was in the Supreme Court monitoring the case hearings. She argued that borrowers were daily experiencing anxiety and pain over the hiatus that the lawsuits had caused.

Legal Challenges of the Plan

According to BBC, some legal experts have expressed their concern about the challenges that the cases and other potential future legal situations would cause for Biden following his 2020 presidential campaign pledges.

A professor at Fordham Law School, Jed Shugerman, said that the situation was "doomed," adding that Biden chose to trek down an "obviously flawed path" that he said was expected to be struck down by the Supreme Court. He noted that the Biden administration has run out of time in the last four years to push through anything similar to the student loan program.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued that Biden's debt relief is allowed under the Heroes Act of 2003. The legislation gives the secretary of Education the necessary authorization to lift the difficulties that federal student loan recipients could face due to national emergencies, said CNBC.