Currently, there are pending reports from the U.S. Department of Education and the Justice Department on whether the president has the legal authority to implement loan forgiveness through executive action. It’s still unclear when the findings will be published.
In the meantime, Kantrowitz added, “borrowers should not take any precipitous action in anticipation of loan forgiveness.”
If Biden decides to go ahead and forgive the loans without Congress, in theory borrowers could see their balances reduced or eliminated pretty quickly. But such a move may be met by court challenges, which could lead to delays.
If the White House opts to leave student loan forgiveness to legislators, Democrats may take action before the mid-term elections, experts say.
At the moment, the main point of contention among student loan forgiveness proponents is over how much debt should be scrapped: $10,000 or $50,000?
