Just over two weeks before the presidential election, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that an additional $4.5 billion in student loan relief will be provided to public servants.
In highlighting Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s efforts to enhance loan forgiveness since entering office, the White House stated the decision impacts around 60,000 borrowers nationwide.
In November, Harris will face off against Republican former President Donald Trump as the Democratic nominee for the White House.
The statement comes as people are struggling with rising living expenses since the Covid-19 outbreak, and surveys show that voters are primarily concerned about the state of the economy.
More than a million people have had their debt forgiven under Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Biden said in a statement.
Supporting educators, nurses, and others, the initiative promised to eliminate student loans after ten years of public service and ten years of payments.
“However, the government broke its promises for far too long, and only 7,000 people were ever forgiven,” Biden stated.
He went on to say, “I will never give up on making higher education accessible.”
Following Trump’s implementation of a student loan payment moratorium during the coronavirus outbreak, Biden has started working to eliminate student debt for millions of Americans.
Some Americans return their $1.6 trillion in student debts over decades when they begin working and starting families.
