Shortly after his inauguration, President Biden signed an Executive Order directing the Education Department to immediately act to continue the freeze on monthly payments and interest on most federal student loans until at least September 30, 2021. This extension of relief for student loan borrowers will affect roughly 40 million federal borrowers who have been shielded from payments and interest since the CARES Act was passed in March, 2020. The freeze will not affect some 8 million borrowers who have federally-backed student loan debt held by private lenders.

Punting on Student Loan Forgiveness

While progressives have been pushing the Biden administration to cancel student loan debt through executive order, Biden doesn’t believe he has the authority to do so. Though he supports immediately canceling $10,000 of federal student loan debt per person, he wants Congress to tackle that issue instead.