Biden admin cancels another $4.5B in student loan debt

Zoom in: PSLF allows public sector employees — like teachers, firefighters and members of law enforcement — to apply for forgiveness after making a decade of qualifying payments on their federal student loan balance.

• Thursday's round of relief also brings the number of public service workers who have received debt forgiveness to more than 1 million.

What they're saying: "For too long, the government failed to live up to its commitments, and only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness under Public Service Loan Forgiveness before Vice President Harris and I took office," President Biden said in a statement. "We vowed to fix that."

The big picture: The Supreme Court sunk the Biden administration's signature student loan forgiveness plan last year.

• Since then, the White House has sought other ways to deliver on its campaign promise of chipping away at the over $1 trillion in student debt held by Americans.
• Biden's new relief plan has also been ensnared in litigation.
• An appeals court in July also blocked the implementation of the administration's SAVE plan, leaving the Education Department and millions of borrowers in limbo.

Go deeper: Biden's new student loan relief plan would slash debt for millions