“Debt relief for student loans has been blocked,” says the government’s Student Debt Relief website. “Courts have issued orders blocking the student debt relief program. As a result, at this time, we are not accepting applications.” “We are seeking to overturn these orders,” the website says, referring to an appeal filed late Thursday by the Justice Department. The program, announced in late August, will give $10,000 in relief to borrowers making less than $125,000 a year, or $250,000 as a married couple and $20,000 in relief to borrowers who meet the same salary standards and also receive Pell grants college. are federal grants awarded to low-income families. The White House continues to express confidence that it will prevail on the president’s student loan relief program, but won’t say what will happen if it is delayed beyond Dec. 31 and student loan repayments resume. “Should people who have student loans who are applying for this program — should they be ready to start paying them off on December 31st,” ABC News’ Molly Nagle asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during during a conversation Friday on Air Force One. “I think we’re going to prevail,” he said, and didn’t comment further on whether Biden would extend the moratorium on student loan payments one more time while it works its way through the courts. The Biden administration had pledged to begin debt relief before Dec. 31, when the moratorium on student debt payments will be lifted after a two-year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But this is the first time a lawsuit has led the Department of Education to shut down its application, clouding the waters over whether borrowers will see relief before they start paying their loans again at the start of the new year. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the student debt relief portal beta test, in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC on October 17, 2022. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images The program has faced several lawsuits in recent months. Two of those lawsuits were thrown out by courts that found the conservative groups that filed the complaints lacked standing, while another lawsuit heard in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently put the program on hold while arguments played out. That lawsuit, brought by six conservative states that opposed the program, allowed borrowers to continue applying for the program but blocked the Department of Education from getting rid of any debt relief until the court ruled. But Thursday night’s decision in Texas threw another, more complicated hurdle into the program. The lawsuit, filed by a conservative group called the Job Creators Network Foundation, argued that the policy unfairly excludes people and should have been created with more input from the public. U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, wrote in his ruling that whether the loan relief “constitutes good public policy is not the role of this Court,” instead focusing on the overreach of the goverment. “No one can reasonably deny that this is either one of the largest delegations of legislative power to the executive branch or one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States,” he wrote. Pittman wrote that there was no clear justification for the Biden administration to exert such influence. “The Court is not blind to the current political division in our country. But it is fundamental to the survival of our Republic that the separation of powers as outlined in our Constitution be preserved,” he wrote. The Biden administration and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona quickly responded Thursday night. Jean-Pierre said they “strongly disagree” with the Texas court’s decision and that the Justice Department has filed an appeal. Cardona reiterated the White House’s commitment to fight the decision, saying the Department of Education is “not backing down.” “We are disappointed with the Texas court’s decision to block loan relief. Amidst efforts to block our debt relief program, we are not backing down. The Department of Justice has appealed today’s decision on our behalf and we will continue to keep you informed borrowers for our efforts to provide targeted relief,” Cardona said. The administration remains confident the program is “legitimate and necessary,” Cardona said. As of last Thursday, about 26 million people had applied for the program. The Biden administration said it approved 16 million of those applications for relief once they could legally begin sending payments. But the latest court problems leave about 17 million eligible Americans out of the program for now. The app was supposed to be live until December 2023, giving borrowers 12 more months to hear about the program and apply for it. Meanwhile, while the lawsuits play out in court, the Department of Education encouraged borrowers to sign up for their newsletter for the most up-to-date information on the program’s next steps. ABC News’ Justin R. Gomez contributed to this report.
