拜登政府发布了针对美国的债务减免政策的初稿受打击最大的学生贷款借款人在长达一个月的规则制定过程中，进一步明确了接下来的步骤，以兑现拜登总统提供债务减免的努力。
拜登去年推出的第一次广泛减免债务的尝试，在6月被最高法院推翻。这项政策将取消超过4000万借款人的债务。在被法院叫停后，拜登宣布，政府将根据一项名为《高等教育法》的不同法律再次尝试。
自那以后，规则制定过程一直在按月更新。虽然这仍是初步的，但教育部周一发布的最新草案重点关注那些现在债务比最初贷款更多的借款人，他们在25年前首次获得贷款，从没有提供足够职业发展机会的学校获得大量贷款，以及根据公共服务贷款豁免或收入驱动的还款计划等计划已经有资格获得债务减免但尚未获得债务减免的借款人。
该部门还在考虑为那些“经历经济困难”的借款人减免债务，这些借款人没有被当前的学生债务偿还系统所承认。
委员会成员讨论政策草案的会议将于下周，即11月6日和7日举行。这16名成员包括来自民权组织、学生借款人权益团体、高等教育官员和政府官员。
在周一晚上与记者的电话会议上，国务院高级官员拒绝提供有多少借款人可能受到该政策影响的数字，称“悬而未决的政策问题”尚未解决。
一位官员表示:“但我们确实认为，总体而言，这些大类借款人将提供大量救助。”。
对于某些类别的借款人，他们的全部债务将被取消，而其他人可能会看到部分债务被取消。
但官员们警告称，未来几个月，该政策的内容可能会发生变化。
“我们仍处于规则制定过程的早期阶段。我们将公布这一文本，供谈判规则制定委员会讨论。从现在到规则最终确定的各个阶段，我们都需要考虑公众的反馈。我们认为最终的规则会因为这个过程而变得更好，”一名部门官员说。
President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt forgiveness, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Oct. 4, 2023, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP，文件
要进入最后阶段，委员会需要达成共识，然后政策必须由教育部颁布，这可能会面临共和党人的法律挑战，他们表示，他们将认为债务减免不在政府的范围内。
与此同时，教育部继续取消陷入还款系统错误的不同借款人的债务。到目前为止，这些努力估计将影响360万借款人——尽管服务人员在执行取消过程中出现了一些问题。
根据一份由教育部发言人向美国广播公司新闻证实的内部备忘录，到目前为止，教育部知道至少有1.6万人收到了他们本不应收到的账单，因为他们的大学被认为是欺诈性的，他们的债务已经被免除。
然而，总的来说，该部门已经确定了130万借款人，他们的债务将被取消，因为他们的大学被学校欺骗了。
该部门还取消了855，000名借款人的债务，这些借款人有资格通过收入驱动的还款获得豁免，但由于服务人员忘记了他们的付款，他们的债务没有被取消，还有715，000名参加公共服务贷款豁免(PSLF)计划的人，他们的债务在10年后没有被取消。
Narrower Biden administration student loan relief plan would target hardest-hit borrowers
The Biden administration has released the first draft of a debt relief policy targeted at thehardest-hit student loan borrowers, providing more clarity on what the next steps are in a monthslong rulemaking process to make good on President Joe Biden's efforts to provide debt relief.
The first attempt at broad debt relief, rolled out by Biden last year, was overturned by the Supreme Court in June. That policy would've cancelled debt for more than 40 million borrowers. After it was halted by the court, Biden announced that the administration would try again, under a different law called the Higher Education Act.
Since then, the rulemaking process has been playing out with updates on a monthly basis. Though it's still preliminary, the latest draft released Monday by the Department of Education focuses on borrowers who have more debt now than they initially took out, have loans that they first took out over 25 years ago, have large loans from schools that provided insufficient career advancement opportunities, and who qualify for debt relief already under programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness or income-driven repayment plans, but haven't received it.
The department is also looking into debt relief for borrowers who are "experiencing financial hardship" that isn't recognized by the current student debt repayment system.
The meeting for committee members to discuss the policy draft takes place next week, on Nov. 6 and 7. The 16 members include people from civil rights organizations, student borrower advocacy groups, higher education officials and government officials.
On a call with reporters Monday night, senior department officials declined to provide a number for how many borrowers could be impacted by the policy, citing "outstanding policy questions" that have yet to play out.
"But we do think these are, generally speaking, large categories of borrowers that would provide significant amounts of relief," one official said.
For some categories of borrowers, the entirety of their debt would be canceled, whereas other people might see partial debt cancellation.
But officials cautioned that elements of the policy could change over the next few months.
"We are still in the early stages of our rulemaking process. And we are releasing this text for discussion with the negotiated rulemaking committee. We're required to include and consider public feedback at a variety of stages between now and the time in which the rules will be finalized. And we think the final rules will be better as a result of that process," a department official said.
To move into final stages, the committee needs to reach a consensus -- and then the policy has to be enacted by the Department of Education, which could face legal challenges from Republicans who have said they’ll argue that debt relief is not within the administration’s bounds.
In the meantime, the Department of Education has continued to cancel debts for different borrowers who have been caught up in errors in the repayment system. So far, those efforts are estimated to impact 3.6 million borrowers -- though there have been issues with servicers carrying out the cancellation process.
So far, the Department of Education is aware of at least 16,000 people who were sent bills they should never have gotten because they’d had their debts forgiven after their colleges had been deemed fraudulent, according to an internal memo confirmed to ABC News by a department spokesperson.
In all, however, the department has identified 1.3 million borrowers in total who will have their debts canceled because their universities have been cheated by their schools.
The department has also canceled debt for 855,000 borrowers who were eligible for forgiveness through income-driven repayment but hadn't seen their debts canceled because servicers had lost count of their payments and 715,000 people enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) programs who hadn't seen their debts canceled after 10 years.
