JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Over the weekend a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Education from processing any loan debt, causing uncertainty for millions of applicants hoping to eliminate student loan debt.
However, experts say not to panic just yet.
The White House says the pause of the Federal Student Loan Relief program does not affect those who have already applied or are thinking about applying, it just prevents funds from being discharged.
The decision causes uncertainty for millions of applicants who were under the impression their student loans will disappear.
“My wife is a UNF graduate," UNF Political Science Professor Nick Seabrook said. "She has about $20,000 in student loan debt. She was a Pell Grant recipient so under this program if it were to go into effect, we would stand to see most, if not all that loan debt forgiven."
The future of the Biden Administration's student debt relief forgiveness plan is unknown, following a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals to pause funds from being released.
Seabrook says the ruling comes as six republican-led states challenged the authority of the Biden Administration.
"They argue that because the loan forgiveness program was established through an executive order by President Biden, rather than through a law that was passed by Congress, that the administration lacks the legal authority to take the actions that it took," Seabrook said.
The Supreme Court has not weighed in on this particular case, but its decision could affect the program's future. Seabrook says eligible borrowers should be worried but not to panic.
“There's a decent chance that when this all shakes out, we're gonna have a Supreme Court ruling that says that the Biden administration did not have the legal authorization from Congress to put this program in place," Seabrook said. "The Supreme Court in recent years has been fairly aggressive in scrutinizing some of the actions of the executive branch."
The application is still open, but there is now an advisory making applicants aware that the Department of Education will continue to review applications, but debt discharges cannot be processed.
More than 22 million applications have already been submitted so far.