Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez joined a coalition of 22 other state attorneys general in support of the Biden administration’s targeted cancellationof the student loan debt program before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In an amicus brief filed in the cases Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown, the attorneys general argued that U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona has the authority under the HEROES Act to provide limited debt cancellation to prevent student loan borrowers from experiencing grave financial hardship as a result of the pandemic.
Last year, the secretary announced plans to grant $10,000 in debt relief for borrowers under certain income thresholds, and $20,000 in debt relief to borrowers who met those income thresholds and also received a Pell Grant in college, according to a news release.
The debt cancellation plan was challenged in September and November 2022.The federal government is now asking the Supreme Court to lift injunctions of the plan granted by the lower courts that blocked the secretary from granting this debt cancellation relief.
The brief emphasizes the ongoing financial harm that the pandemic has caused student borrowers, and the evidence that a spike in pandemic-related defaults is likely to occur upon lifting of the current student loan repayment pause, the release stated.
