Late Friday night for the first time, some borrowers were able to apply for up to $20,000 in student loan cancellation that President Joe Biden had promised in August.
The Education Department, which directly holds $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt owed by 45 million borrowers, said it had begun "beta testing the student debt relief website" on Friday. The agency said it hoped the test would help it find any problems before the site publicly opened. That is expected to happen shortly.
"Borrowers will not need to reapply if they submit their application during the beta test, but no applications will be processed until the site officially launches later this month," a department spokesperson said.
Some immediately pounced on the suddenly active site.
"Application for student debt relief is now live!!" Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted.
On Twitter, some people reported successfully submitting applications. Others were met with the news that their application was in a queue with the message: "We're accepting applications to help us refine our processes ahead of the official form launch. If you submit an application, it will be processed, and you won't need to resubmit."
Biden's plan to eliminate up to $20,000 per borrower in federal student loan debt — an executive action estimated to cost $400 billion or more — has been challenged in court, intensifying the pressure on the administration to discharge debt quickly. A federal judge in Missouri heard oral arguments this week on a lawsuit from a group of Republican state attorneys general seeking an injunction to prevent the debt cancellation from being implemented.
The Education Department said in court filings that Oct. 23 would be the soonest it anticipated canceling student debt.
