White House pushes popularity of student loan plan after vote to block it

The White House on Friday pushed back on bipartisan votes in the House and Senate to block President Biden’s student debt relief plan, arguing the program is popular with Americans.

A measure to block the plan passed the Senate this week in a 52-46 vote and cleared the GOP-majority House in a party-line vote last month, with two Democrats joining Republicans.

When asked Friday if those votes imply that the American people don’t agree with the plan, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded that Biden’s plan “is actually very popular with Americans.”

“I don’t think protecting American families or making sure that we give them a little bit of breathing room is going against the will of the American people,” she said.

The president’s proposal would impact 40 million borrowers and give $10,000 in loan forgiveness to those making less than $125,000 annually and $20,000 in forgiveness for Pell Grants recipients. 

The president is set to veto the measure, and opponents of Biden’s efforts will be unable to get the two-thirds majority vote in both the House and the Senate required to overturn the veto.

The expected veto will leave the fate of the program in the hands of the conservative-majority Supreme Court.

Jean-Pierre said Friday that blocking the plan is “not the right thing to do,” adding, “it’s a popular plan.”

The press secretary emphasized that 90 percent of the borrowers it would help make $75,000 or less annually.

“It’s going to help people who truly, truly really need it in a time when the pause is going to lift, we want to make sure people have a little bit of extra breathing room to be able to pay for those loans once the pause is lifted in August,” she said.

The end of the pandemic-era student loan payment pause was locked in this week with the passage of the bipartisan debt ceiling agreement, which included a hard cutoff date of 60 days after June 30.

Biden is expected to sign the debt ceiling agreement into law before Monday.