Biden has a new student loan forgiveness plan, and you can join a public hearing on it now

Following a Supreme Court ruling last month that effectively killed President Joe Biden’s original student loan forgiveness plan, the White House is quickly moving ahead with a new strategy to deliver people relief.

This time, Biden will rely on a different law to try to legally erase student loan debt — the Higher Education Act. The justices concluded he didn’t have the power to do so under the Heroes Act of 2003.

This new plan is the topic of an open hearing Tuesday at the U.S. Department of Education, where members of the public can weigh in on the latest relief package and learn more about how it will work.

“We look forward to participating in the negotiated rulemaking process and appreciate the Biden administration’s willingness to deliver debt relief in the face of last month’s unjust ruling by the Supreme Court,” Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, said during the event.

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This hearing is the first phase of the process, and there will be an opportunity to submit your own public comment on it in the near future. For Tuesday, here’s what to know. 

The virtual event is free and runs from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Eastern. You can join the public hearing on student loan relief at Eventbrite.

Those who wanted to comment at the hearing had to send an email by noon on Monday to [email protected].

If you didn’t meet that deadline, it should still be an interesting event to listen in on, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

“They can hear what other people are saying,” he said. Each person should speak for around four minutes.

There will also be a public comment period down the road, Kantrowitz said, during which anyone can submit their preferences and ideas on the subject.

Tuesday’s hearing should influence Biden’s proposed new rule for delivering people relief. The entire process could take a year or longer, Kantrowitz said.

That’s because unlike with Biden’s first attempt to forgive student debt quickly through an executive order, this time he’s turning to the rulemaking procedure.

“If the Biden administration is successful in providing loan forgiveness under the HEA,” Kantrowitz said, “borrowers could see forgiveness around the time of the election.”