US President Joe Biden during a campaign event in Detroit, Michigan, US, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Biden said he was being unfairly targeted for his verbal miscues and vowed to "shine a spotlight" on Republican Donald Trump and his agenda, as the Democrat looked to pivot away from a debate performance that badly damaged his campaign. Republicans have called the Democratic president's student loan forgiveness approach an overreach of authority and an unfair benefit to college-educated borrowers while others received no such relief.
Each of the beneficiaries under the plan will receive $35,000 in debt cancellation, the White House said in a statement.
Biden, keen to shore up waning support among young people ahead of the November presidential election, had pledged last year to find other avenues for tackling debt relief after the Supreme Court had blocked his broader plan to cancel $430 billion in student loan debt.
In May, Biden canceled $7.7 billion in student debt for 160,000 borrowers.
(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Alison Williams)