President Joe Biden forgave another $5 billion in student loans on Jan. 19, absolving 74,000 Americans of their debt.
In a White House briefing, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre emphasized that public servants — including nurses, teachers and firefighters — would be relieved by the motion. Approximately 30,000 of them "have been in repayment for at least 20 years but never got the relief they earned through income-driven repayment plans," President Biden said in a statement.
The Supreme Court struck down President Biden's student relief plan in June, arguing that it had not been explicitly approved by Congress, according to NBC News. The plan would have canceled up to $20,000 in student debt for approximately 43 million people.
In the wake of the court's decision, the Biden-Harris administration is "continuing to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible," according to President Biden's statement.
In total, President Biden's administration has canceled $136 billion in student loan debt for more than 3.7 million people, according to The New York Times. More than 43 million Americans still owe approximately $1.6 trillion in federal student loan repayments.