WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is moving ahead with a new path to student loan cancellation for Americans who face steep medical bills, child care costs and other types of financial hardship that prevent them from repaying their loans.
Announced Friday, the proposed rule is President Joe Biden's third attempt at student loan cancellation as he faces repeated legal challenges from Republican states. His first plan was rejected by the Supreme Court last year, and his second plan has been temporarily halted by a federal judge in Missouri.
The new rule would have to clear a number of hurdles before it becomes official, and it's unclear if it could be realized before Biden leaves office in three months. Like Biden's other loan forgiveness proposals, it could face court challenges from conservatives who say it's unconstitutional and unfair.
If finalized, the new rule would allow the Education Department to proactively cancel loans for borrowers if the agency determines they have an 80% chance of being in default on their loans within two years. Others could apply for a review to determine if they meet the criteria for cancellation.
It's meant to help borrowers who are unlikely to ever be able to repay their loans. The Education Department estimates about 8 million Americans would qualify for cancellation.
“For far too long, our broken student loan system has made it too hard for borrowers experiencing heartbreaking and financially devastating hardships to access relief, and it’s not right,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
Those who could be eligible include people with unexpected medical bills, high child care costs, heavy costs related to caring for relatives with chronic illnesses, and those struggling financially in the wake of natural disasters, the Education Department said.
Under the proposal, the department could use a range of factors to judge whether someone is likely to fall into default on their loans. It includes household income, age, whether they receive public benefits, and their overall debt — not just from student loans.
It also allows consideration of “any other indicators of hardship identified by the Secretary.” A loan is usually considered in default if no payment has been made in about nine months.
With about 1 million borrowers in default every year, Cardona said the new rule would prevent his agency from trying to collect money it's unlikely to recoup.
“Servicing and collecting on defaulted loans is not free, it costs taxpayer dollars,” Cardona said in a call with reporters. “And there’s a point when the cost of trying to collect on a defaulted loan just is not worth it.”
The proposal will enter a 30-day public comment period before it could become official. The administration said it plans to finalize the rule in 2025. It faces an uncertain future arriving less than two weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has not detailed her plans for student debt cancellation if she wins the presidency. Republican nominee Donald Trump has called Biden's cancellation proposals unfair and illegal.
Biden's latest proposal is the result of a federal rules process that included experts from across higher education. Advocates pushed hard for the hardship provision, saying too many borrowers get trapped with debt they’ll never be able to repay.
The Biden administration said it has authority under the Higher Education Act, which allows the education secretary to waive debt in certain cases. It also noted that other federal agencies routinely waive debts owed to them, considering factors like “good conscience” and equity.
It's a similar legal argument used to justify Biden's second attempt at student loan forgiveness, which proposes relief for groups of borrowers including those with large sums of interest and those with older loans. A federal judge in Missouri blocked that plan amid a legal challenge from Republican states.
Biden campaigned for the White House on a promise of new student loan cancellation, but his biggest plans have been halted by Republican opponents. Last year, the Supreme Court rejected a plan to forgive up to $20,000 for millions of Americans after several Republican states sued to block it.
Amid its legal battles, the administration has increasingly shifted attention to its work canceling student loans using existing programs, including one for public service workers. In total, the administration says it has now canceled $175 billion for about 5 million borrowers.
The hardship provision was originally discussed as part of the second-attempt plan that's now on hold in Missouri, but the Education Department broke it off into its own proposal to spend more time on the details.
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President Joe Biden stops to speak to the media as he walks to board Marine One at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli strikes killed 38 people in Gaza and three journalists in Lebanon on Friday as growing worries about supply shortages in Gaza and international pressure for a cease-fire mounted.
The deaths reported by Gaza health officials were the latest in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where people have in recent days lined up for bread outside the city's only bakery in operation. They come a day after United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel had accomplished its objective of “effectively dismantling” Hamas and implored both sides to revive negotiations.
Also on Friday, an Israeli airstrike on a compound housing journalists in southeast Lebanon killed three media staffers. Outside of now-collapsed buildings rented by various media outlets, cars marked “PRESS" lay covered in dust and rubble after the strike, Associated Press photos showed.
The Israeli army did not issue a warning prior to the strike. Representatives of the news networks and Lebanese politicians accused Israel of war crimes and intentionally targeting journalists.
“These were just journalists that were sleeping in bed after long days of covering the conflict,” said Imran Khan, a senior correspondent for Al Jazeera English who was among the journalists in the compound.
In a social media post, he said he and his team were unhurt.
The Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said two of its staffers — camera operator Ghassan Najar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida — were among the journalists killed early Friday. Al-Manar TV of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said its camera operator Wissam Qassim was also killed in the airstrike on the Hasbaya region.
Al-Mayadeen’s director Ghassan bin Jiddo alleged that the Israeli strike on a compound housing journalists was intentional and directed at those covering elements of its military offensive. He vowed that the Beirut-based station would continue its work.
Lebanon's Information Minister Ziad Makary said the journalists were killed while broadcasting what he called Israel's crimes, and noted they were among a large group of members of the media.
“This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with premeditation and planning, as there were 18 journalists present at the location representing seven media institutions,” he wrote in a post on X.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike.
Ali Shoeib, Al-Manar’s well-known correspondent in south Lebanon, was seen in a video filming himself with a cellphone saying that the camera operator who had been working with him for months was killed. Shoeib said the Israeli military knew that the area that was struck housed journalists of different media organizations.
“We were reporting the news and showing the suffering of the victims and now we are the news and the victims of Israel’s crimes,” Shoeib added in the video aired on Al-Manar TV.
The Hasbaya region has been spared much of the violence along the border and many of the journalists now staying there have moved from the nearby town of Marjayoun that has been subjected to sporadic strikes in recent weeks. Earlier in the week, a strike hit an office belonging to Al-Mayadeen on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
Lebanon’s Health Minister said Friday that 11 journalists have been killed and eight wounded since exchange of fire began along the Lebanon-Israel border in early October 2023.
In November 2023, two journalists for Al-Mayadeen TV were killed in a drone strike. A month earlier, Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded other journalists from France’s international news agency, Agence France-Presse, and Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV.
The killing of journalists has prompted international outcry from press advocacy groups and United Nations experts, although Israel has said it does not deliberately target them.
On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said it had preliminarily counted 128 journalists killed in Gaza since the war began.
Israel has accused journalists working for Al Jazeera of being members of militant groups, citing documents it purportedly found in Gaza. The network has denied the claims as “a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists has dismissed them as well, and said that “Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence.”
Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants but says women and children make up more than half the fatalities. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The Israeli campaign has since expanded to Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion Oct. 1, after trading fire with the Hezbollah militant group for much of the past year.
Lebanese health officials reported another day of intense airstrikes and shelling Thursday, which they said killed 19 people over 24 hours and raised the overall Lebanese death toll to 2,593 since October 2023.
People observe the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, in Hasbaya village, southeast Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A policeman checks a destroyed journalists' car, at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, in Hasbaya village, southeast Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A journalist observes the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, in Hasbaya village, southeast Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Journalists' items on the ground next to a destroyed vehicle, at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, in Hasbaya village, southeast Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Destroyed vehicles used by journalists at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, in Hasbaya village, southeast Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A destroyed journalists' car at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, in Hasbaya village, southeast Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Mansouri village, as it seen from the southern city of Tyre, south Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
