The Biden administration's student loan repayment plan remains in limbo as the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reinstate the program on Wednesday while legal battles continue in the lower courts.
The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan aims to restructure the repayment terms for millions of student loan borrowers, reduce monthly payments and speed up loan forgiveness.
The plan was blocked by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this summer after a challenge from GOP-led states. The administration filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court shortly thereafter.
The SAVE plan was introduced last year after the Supreme Court struck down a previous debt relief program that would have canceled $10,000 in student debt per borrower. The new plan was designed in two phases: the first, effective last fall, increased the income threshold for protected payments and waived accrued unpaid interest; the second, set for July, would have reduced the income repayment percentage and expanded forgiveness options.
The Department of Education has put the roughly 8 million borrowers currently enrolled in the SAVE plan in an interest-free forbearance, so they won't have to make monthly payments for now.