As White House Honors National Teachers of the Year at State Dinner, Biden-Harris Administration Releases New Data on Public Service Loan Forgiveness Approvals in Every Congressional District

The Biden-Harris Administration today released new data showing the breakdown of borrowers approved for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) by Congressional District. The data showcase how every district across the country has borrowers that are part of the 876,000 individuals who have been approved for $62.8 billion in relief through this program. By contrast, at the start of this Administration only 7,000 had been approved for PSLF. The data released today come as the White House prepares to host the first-ever State dinner to honor the 2024 National Teacher of the Year and State Teachers of the Year from across the country.

“As we honor our nation’s teachers, we also celebrate the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic work to help ease the burden of student loans for educators as well as for nurses, firefighters, and other public service workers in every single part of the country,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “The data show that much-needed student loan relief is available for public servants no matter where they live—rural or urban, on the coast or in the heartland, and in every congressional district.”

The approvals contained in the data are representative of the Administration’s unceasing efforts to fix the broken student loan system and restore the promise of discharge programs. The Administration has helped fix longstanding problems with PSLF through the limited PSLF waiver, while the payment count adjustment has also ensured that borrowers get accurate counts of progress toward forgiveness. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education (Education) also implemented new regulations designed to make it easier for borrowers to qualify for PSLF.

The data show that on average, more than 1,200 borrowers in each district have been approved for $87 million in relief. Every district has been approved for at least $1 million in relief. Outside of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the districts with the largest number of approved borrowers are New York’s 20th, Maryland’s 5th, Virginia’s 8th, New York’s 25th, and Florida’s 2nd.

Unwavering commitment to relief
The Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to using all available tools to deliver the federal student loan relief that borrowers and their families deserve. In total, the Administration has approved almost $160 billion in relief for nearly 4.6 million borrowers, including:

• $49.2 billion for more than 996,000 borrowers through improvements to IDR that addressed longstanding administrative failure and the misuse of forbearance by loan servicers.
• $4.8 billion for almost 360,000 borrowers on the SAVE Plan. These are borrowers who originally took out smaller loans for their postsecondary studies.
• $28.7 billion for 1.6 million borrowers who were cheated by their schools, saw their institutions precipitously close, or are covered by related court settlements.
• $14.1 billion for more 548,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability.

The Department is also working on new regulations to provide debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible. Those draft rules are currently out for public comment through May 17.