THE White House said US President Joe Biden would announce new steps today to help people affected by the Supreme Court’s cancelling of his student loan forgiveness programme.  

Biden is to unveil US$9 billion (RM42.57 billion) in debt relief for 125,000 people, the latest in a series of measures announced by the Democrat this week as he eyes re-election in 2024.  

The messaging also comes as rival Republicans descend into vicious internal strife, ousting their own House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in an unprecedented move yesterday.  

“President Biden has long believed that college should be a ticket to the middle class – not a burden that weighs on families,” a White House official said.  

Repayments on federal student loans – 46 million people in the United States have outstanding student loans totaling more than US$1.6 trillion – resumed in October after a pause that began with the Covid pandemic and the financial strains it caused.  

This followed June’s ruling by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court striking down Biden’s ambitious plan to cancel more than US$400 billion of student debt.  

Biden quickly announced at the time that he would repackage his student loan relief program.   

The Supreme Court, featuring three judges appointed by Biden’s likely 2024 rival, Donald Trump, has moved sharply to the right in recent years, notably with last year’s landmark overturning of the federal right to abortion. – AFP, October 4, 2023.