Efforts to block student loan forgiveness won't derail Biden's plan, try as partisans might

President Biden’s top priority since day one of his administration has been to help working and middle-class families recover from the pandemic and get back on their feet. That’s why he worked to pass the American Rescue Plan and invest hundreds of billions of dollars to reopen schools and get students back in classrooms.

It’s why he signed the Inflation Reduction Act that will lower costs for millions of American families. And it’s why he announced his administration’s plan to provide targeted debt relief to approximately 40 million Americans most at risk of financial hardship as they prepare to resume student loan payments in January.

But in seven states, Republican attorneys general and officials have sued to block this effort — leaving the financial security of tens of millions of working and middle-class Americans to hang in the balance.

Despite their efforts, some cases have been dismissed.

Lawsuit dismissed: Judge dismisses suit from GOP states aiming to block Biden student loan debt forgiveness plan

Where were the GOP lawsuits before?

Under the Biden-Harris administration’s debt relief plan, nearly 90 percent of the benefits will go to people making less than $75,000 per year. These are people in red states and blue states — teachers, nurses, hair stylists, veterans and home healthcare workers. Parents who took out loans so their kids could be the first in their family to go to college.

I paid off $65K in student debt: Here's how I feel about Biden's student loan forgiveness

These are people with associate’s degrees and technicians with certificates. These are people who will have the task of rebuilding our roads and bridges, and the same people Republicans promised to fight for when they were elected — but now they’re suing to stop them from getting relief.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

These same Republican attorneys general and officials, however, didn’t file lawsuits when $58.5 billion in pandemic relief loans were forgiven for their state’s business owners. They didn’t oppose $2 trillion in tax cuts to the highest earning businesses and individuals as part of the Trump tax giveaway.

And they didn’t complain when Republican Members of Congress got millions of dollars of their own Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven by the federal government last year. It’s only when relief is going to working and middle-class Americans that these elected officials have a problem.

Opposing view: First lawsuit is filed challenging Biden's costly, unfair student loan forgiveness plan

Republicans won't stop relief

Amid some Republicans trying every which way to block the Biden Administration’s debt relief program, the department is moving full speed ahead with preparations for the lawful implementation of our program so we can deliver relief to borrowers who need it most.

Already, 22 million people have provided the department with the necessary information we need to review their eligibility for student debt relief. We encourage borrowers to continue to apply for debt relief at studentaid.gov.

More US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona: COVID-19 hurt student academic achievements, but we can recover

The application is easy to use and available online and on mobile devices in multiple languages. Federal borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year will be eligible, and no borrower in the top 5 percent of income in the United States will get a penny of relief.

This program will help borrowers by providing relief following the economic disruptions caused by the pandemic. President Biden and this administration will never stop fighting for the millions of hardworking students and borrowers across the country — no matter how many elected officials or lawsuits try to stop us.

Visit studentaid.gov/debtrelief to sign up for regular updates and to apply.

Miguel Cardona is the U.S. Secretary of Education.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden's student debt relief plan won't be stopped by GOP, lawsuits