Defunct program preventing some from student loan forgiveness

(NewsNation) — A sticking point in a federal program that ended in 2010 may leave many who sought student loan forgiveness twisting in the wind.

The Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program worked with private lenders to provide education loans guaranteed by the federal government.

That program, however, ended more than a decade ago, and students who did not refinance those loans before Sept. 29, 2022, are not eligible for forgiveness.

President Joe Biden’s administration has said it’s looking for “additional legally available options to provide relief” to those borrowers, but nothing has been announced yet.

The latest attempt rests on the Higher Education Act of 1965, a wide-reaching law that gives the Department of Education power to “compromise, waive or release” certain debts. The law, however, is unclear on how the secretary can wield that authority, creating a legal gray area that has been the subject of debate since Biden took office.

The United States Supreme Court last year struck down Biden’s plan for student debt relief — at a time when federal student loan debt in the U.S. totaled more than $1.6 trillion.

The plan forgave as much as $10,000 in federal student debt for borrowers and doubled the debt relief to $20,000 for borrowers who also received Pell Grants and make less than $125,000 per year. About half of the average debt held by Black and Hispanic borrowers would have been wiped out, according to the White House.

The pandemic-era pause on student loan repayments ended in the fall of 2023, and repayments started in October.

NewsNation’s Katie Smith and The Associated Press contributed to this report.