Biden Student Debt Relief Plan Faces Skeptical Judges on Appeal

Eighth Circuit judges scrutinized a Biden student debt relief plan that could lower monthly payments to zero and speed up loan forgiveness, as the administration defended the plan to judges at oral argument Thursday.

Thomas Pulham, arguing for the US Education Department, said the department had authority to implement the plan through a statute creating income-contingent repayment plans, but judges questioned that argument.

“Congress authorized a repayment plan,” said Judge Leonard S. Grasz of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. “If the borrowers’ payments are reduced to zero and then forgiven, how is that a repayment plan?” ...