“We strongly disagree with the Kansas and Missouri District Court rulings, which block components of the SAVE Plan that help student loan borrowers have affordable monthly payments and stay out of default. The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously defend the SAVE Plan. The Biden-Harris Administration’s SAVE Plan is the most affordable repayment plan in history. We designed SAVE to cut undergraduate loan payments in half, avoid interest growth for borrowers making zero-dollar or low payments, and allow at-risk borrowers to reach forgiveness faster. Under SAVE, nearly 8 million Americans-one out of five borrowers-have breathing room from bills that, too often, compete with basic needs. But Republican elected officials and special interests sued to block their own constituents from being able to benefit from this plan – even though the Department has relied on the authority under the Higher Education Act three times over the last 30 years to implement income-driven repayment plans.
“While we continue to review these rulings, the SAVE plan still means lower monthly payments for millions of borrowers – including more than 4 million borrowers who owe no payments at all, and protections for borrowers facing runaway interest when they are making their monthly payments.
“President Biden, Vice President Harris, and I remain committed to our work to fix a broken student loan system and make college more affordable for more Americans. We remain proud of our work providing debt relief to more than 4.75 million Americans-including fixing the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, providing income-driven repayment plans, relief for borrowers with disabilities, and relief for borrowers burdened with debt from predatory schools. We will continue to provide this long-overdue relief, no matter how many times Republican elected officials and their allies try to stop us.”