On Thursday, a US federal appeals court stopped the administration of President Joe Biden from carrying out its proposal to reduce student loan debt.

The Biden administration established the Savings on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan earlier this year to lower the monthly installments for debtors of student loans; however, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit blocked the other parts of the program.

“Today’s judgment from the 8th Circuit blocking President Biden’s SAVE program might have catastrophic repercussions for thousands of student loan borrowers burdened by unsustainable monthly payments if it stays in effect,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona declared.

Following a few Republican lawmakers claiming that the Education Department overreached its powers and attempted to keep acknowledging student debt after the US Supreme Court restricted the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program in June 2023, 2 federal judges in Kansas and Missouri delayed sections of the SAVE plan this past month.

“We cannot allow Joe Biden to burden hardworking Missouri households with Ivy League debt,” said Andrew Bailey, the attorney general of Missouri. For this reason, we must continue advancing our claim. We are eager to oppose this unlawful allocation of wealth.”

The Biden administration claims that the SAVE program increases the limitation on disposable income, lowers payments every month for consumers, and shortens the repayment period for debtors with loans that had an initial balance of $12,000 or less to 10 years (instead of 20 or 25) once they make eligible payments. By the correction of past payment measure system errors, SAVE is intended to agree with over $116 billion in special assistance for 3.4 million student loan borrowers, such as $39 billion for 804,000 lenders, $45.7 billion for 662,000 general population, and $10.5 billion for 491,000 consumers with an entire and lifelong disability.