White House scraps some pending regulations before the end of the Biden administration

President Joe Biden is reportedly abandoning his intentions to cancel student loans for more than 38 million Americans. According to the AP, "The White House expects to pull back unfinished rules across several agencies if there isn’t enough time to finalize them before Trump takes office," meaning Biden will scrap regulations and campaign promises that will not come to fruition by the end of his term.

Despite this, the federal government did announce the cancellation of the student debt of approximately 55,000 public sector employees (about $4.28 billion in federal loans). This measure, according to the White House, brings the total number of beneficiaries to about 5 million.

"From Day One of my administration, I vowed to improve the student loan system so that higher education provides Americans with opportunity and prosperity—not unmanageable burdens of student loan debt," Biden previously said.

Forgiveness amid legal challenges

In 2023, the Supreme Court blocked a proposal that would have reduced the debt of more than 40 million borrowers, and more recently, a federal court temporarily halted the SAVE plan, a scheme designed to reduce monthly payments based on income.

The current payments are aimed at workers in areas such as education, public health, emergency response and law enforcement who have made 120 qualifying monthly payments.

President-elect Donald Trump agrees with the court, and on many occasions has criticized these initiatives, though he has not specified whether he would reverse existing measures.