WASHINGTON — President Trump is poised to sign an executive order barring “public service” student debt forgiveness for people employed by certain “anti-American” advocacy organizations.
The order will direct the Education Department to revise the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to bar employees at groups that have an allegedly illegal purpose, an administration source said.
The restriction in theory would impact employees of groups that promote illegal immigration, terrorism, child abuse, discrimination and public disruptions, the source said.
It’s unclear what recourse debt-holders would have to challenge the determination.
Trump acknowledged the planned order during an Oval Office event Friday when an aide mentioned it was coming, but did not comment at length on it.
The PSLF program, created by 2007 legislation, was significantly expanded by former President Joe Biden after the Supreme Court knocked down his attempt to grant loan write-offs of between $10,000 and $20,000 to former students.
The Biden administration used the public-service program to dispense $78.5 billion in loan forgiveness to 1,069,000 borrowers — up from 7,000 recipients when Biden took office in 2021.
The program’s earliest effective date was 2017 and Biden argued it was insufficiently utilized during Trump’s first term.
Trump aides, in turn, accuse Biden of stretching the definition of who qualifies as a “public service” worker well beyond the authorizing legislation’s intent.
The program requires recipients to make at least 10 years of monthly loan repayments in order to qualify for forgiveness.
The Biden-era grants were part of a broader $183.6 billion initiative to transfer student debt held by more than 5 million borrowers onto taxpayers — after his initial $400 billion plan, which was unveiled just before the 2022 midterm elections, failed to pass muster in court.
The Biden administration also forgave $34.5 billion in debt held by students who were allegedly defrauded by schools, $18.7 billion for people with disabilities and $57.1 billion for people in income-driven repayment plans.
