OVER 400,000 SAN DIEGO COUNTY STUDENTS ELIGIBLE FOR PARTIAL LOAN FORGIVENESS, BUT LESS THAN HALF HAVE APPLIED AS PROGRAM HANGS IN LEGAL LIMBO

Federal government releases breakdown by Congressional district as Supreme Court readies to hear cases challenging program

By Miriam Raftery

February 17,2023 (San Diego)—The U.S. Department of Education has released a chart showing federal student loan forgiveness applications and approvals broken down by Congressional district.  The data shows that “In every single congressional district, at least half of eligible borrowers either applied or were deemed auto-eligible for debt relief, and that was only in the one month that the application was available before the program got blocked because of lawsuits.”

Nationally, about 40 million student borrowers were eligible for the program and around 26 million applications were received, of which 16 million were approved before a court blocked the program pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving borrowers in limbo for now.

In San Diego County, over 400,000 borrowers would be eligible for the loan forgiveness, if the high court allows it to move forward.  Over 240,000 of those have applied and around 154,000 local borrowers have been approved.

Here is the breakdown by district:

#          Representative         Eligible           Applied or automatic eligibility       Approved

48        Darrell Issa                79,000           48,600                                                   29,900

49        Mark Levin                67,000            41,500                                                   25,300

50        Scott Peters              78,500            50,400                                                   31,500

51        Sara Jacobs              84,900            54,000                                                   33,800

52        Juan Vargas              92,800            52,700                                                   34,100

The Biden administration program would offer up to $20,000 in student loan forgiveness to millions of low and middle income borrowers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

California has the most people who have applied or are automatically eligible of any state- around 2.3 million people.

But several Republican states filed lawsuits seeking to block the loan forgiveness program, arguing it would add to the federal debt and questioning President had the authority to issue such an executive order. This month, 126 House Republicans signed an amicus brief urging the court to block Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.  A separate suit by individual borrowers claims the forgiveness would be unfair to formers students who already paid off loans.

“Across the country, in every congressional district there is a strong desire for the Biden-Harris Administration’s one-time debt relief program,” a Department of Education official said about the new data, CNN reports. “In every single congressional district, at least half of eligible borrowers either applied or were deemed auto-eligible for debt relief, and that was only in the one month that the application was available before the program got blocked because of lawsuits.”